The Lost Book of Adventure: from the notebooks of the Unknown Adventurer

by Unknown Adventurer, Teddy Keen (Editor)

A facsimile edition of the tattered notebooks of the Unknown Adventurer, this love letter to the wild details everything you need to know about how to live and thrive in nature, from the principles of treehouse building to wilderness first aid.
 
If you are reading this, it means my notebooks have been found. I am leaving them here at camp for safekeeping along with a few other belongings that I won’t be taking with me. The notebooks are a lifetime’s worth of knowledge, which I’m passing on the you.

So reads an excerpt from the weatherworn letter discovered by nature enthusiast Teddy Keen on a recent trip to the Amazon, along with sketchbooks filled with details of extraordinary adventures and escapades , expedition advice , and survival methods , annotated with captivating colored-pencil drawings . It is thought that the sketchbooks were created for two young relatives of the author. Drawing on Teddy’s knowledge of the outdoors, the pages of the sketchbooks have been carefully transcribed for young readers, as they were originally intended.
 
You’ll be transported by riveting adventure tales from around the globe , like being dragged off by a hyena in Botswana, surviving a Saharan dust storm, being woken by an intrepid emperor penguin in Antarctica, and coming face-to-face with a venomous bushmaster (one of the most dangerous snakes on the planet)—all told in lyrical prose and illustrations that wonder at the mysterious beauty of the wild .
 
Having inspired the adventurous spirit in you, the Unknown Adventurer encourages you to set out on your own adventure with information on wild camping , rafting , exploration , and shelters and dens , plus tips on first aid and tying knots . Expert instructions on wilderness basics, like building a fire , what to do if you get lost , and how to build various types of shelters are accompanied by more specific skills culled from many years of experience, like baking campfire bread, creating a toothbrush from a twig, making a suture from soldier ants, and even how to pan for gold.
 
Find your way back to your primal self with the immersive text and glorious color artwork of this one-of-a-kind adventure book.
 
be good, be adventurous…and look after your parents.

Genres: Nonfiction, Adventure, Childrens, Travel, Nature, Picture Books, Middle Grade

192 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2019

Reviews

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lovely pictures, however I had a hard time with the text both the content and the fonts. The information is juxtaposed on the pages replicating a notebook. However, normally, if you intended to publish your notebook you would lay it out in readable format. One font and the size of that font was particularly difficult to see/read.

I'm not sure who this book is aimed at. As an adult, I had to work hard to read and follow it. As an adventurer, I would prefer a comprehensive wilderness guide.

[Sue Read · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is unique and quite unlike anything I have read in a long while. I was immediately drawn in by the first page 'when you next feel the wind brush by, think about where it has come from...it is the quiet call to adventure, asking you to step into the wild.' The very nature of finding an 'unknown' adventurer's notebook is strangely very appealing and tempting. What happened to him, or her? Where is he now?

For sure, this is a book designed to equip you for adventure into any environment and any climate. It contains the most comprehensive guidance, in the form of lists, instructions, diagrams, facts, knowledge, techniques, advice, remedies and warnings. Yet, it is so much more than just a handbook. It is also a beautifully illustrated story, narrating a life time of adventure, which draws on thoughtful reflections, poetically written. On describing the Northern Lights, 'it was as if a celestial chorus had put on a show for an audience of one'.

Whilst this book tells us about expeditions to places most of us can only read and dream about, it equips us with a desire to explore what is available to us: a local park, wood, meadow, beach or lake, even our back gardens. We can all lay down and look up at the stars, sit round a fire with friends, camp over night, beach comb or rock pool. We can go out for a bike ride, take a picnic, look for tracks and send messages in a bottle. We can build dens, barbeque a meal, forage for fruit and nuts and catch fish. 'As long as it is uncharted to you, it is real exploration'.

In a way this book is inexhaustible; it instructs and motivates and because of the depth of its detail would be consulted time and time again. What to build now, where to go next, what to pack to go further and how to tackle a new environment are well within its capability to see a child through years and years of exploring. It is inspiration to write too, to record, pass on advice and experiences, after all, isn't that half of the fun? It instils in us a need to plan and prepare, to know and understand our environment, our world. It is the reason to study to stars, the coast, to have knowledge of the desert, rivers, mountains and their inhabitants, flora and fauna. It is a reason to understand the weather, night and day, seasons and temperature. It is about who we are and where we fit into this wonderful world.

[Kyra Leseberg (Roots & Reads) · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Lost Book of Adventure will spark the imagination of readers of all ages!
The book beautifully illustrates different camp/shelter set-ups and locations, guides for survival and safety, tips for planning explorations, equipment/supply lists, and instructions. I enjoyed the brief stories of danger and adventure across continents written by the unknown adventurer.

The book contains brief yet detailed information that older readers (middle grade and up) will appreciate but the illustrations and more simple instructions (ex: How to make a bedsheet hammock, planning a bike adventure) will spark a sense of adventure in young readers.
My five-year-old daughter was thrilled to learn about treehouse building and backyard camping and her imagination turned planning these activities into some daring adventures!

The Lost Book of Adventure definitely contains a little something for everyone with an adventurous imagination!

Thanks to Quarto Publishing/Frances Lincoln Children's Books and NetGalley for providing me with a digital ARC in exchange for my honest review. The Lost Book of Adventure is scheduled for release on March 5, 2019.

[Vicki · Rating 5 out of 5]

Firstly I just have to state that I received this book in exchange for an honest review (thank you Frances Lincoln! ).

This book is an absolute stunner. The illustrations are utterly beautiful and if it sounds like I am gushing, that is because this is a book deserving of that.

This book was somewhat a throwback to my childhood which was spent happily exploring the countryside, building dens and having adventures. Not only is the book beautiful it is very informative with instructions on pitching tents, campfire cooking, foraging for food, reading maps and building shelters and rafts. The perfect book for any young explorer, and a great book for grownups to share with the small adventurers in their lives. This book goes a long way in showing just how much fun there is to be had in the great outdoors.

[Etienne · Rating 3 out of 5]

An unknown adventurer journal/sketch book. This book is just gorgeous in every possible aspect, Great drawing style and illustrations quality. I enjoy that a lot. But as for the content of the book, I’m not so sure... It’s a journal that looks like a survival guide but for young children. I m8understand they can build their imagination with it and go on an imaginative adventure. But drawing of tent, raft, survival tips and more are maybe not what young reader might enjoy more. I love the visual aspect, but between the visual and the contents, I find the targeted reader a bit unclear and I have trouble finding for what age I would recommend it.

[Seema Rao · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stunning ~ Irrestible ~ Intricate

tl;dr: A visualize of all the greatest adventures of your dreams.

EXTRAORDINARY. This book is the illustration of every dream of exploration, like My Side of the Mountain, Swiss Family Robinson, and Peter Pan, in a visual encyclopedia. The Unknown Explorer or his proxy is an exemplary draftsperson. The illustrations blend painterly explorations of color with precision rendering. This book blends the analytical qualities of Leonardo with the curiosity of Blake--but way more accessible than my last sentence. This would be a great gift for the explorer on your list, young or old, and I hope to see it join many school libraries. Every kid deserves to travel, especially in their mind's eye.

Bravo for an exceptional book for all ages.

Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Seema Rao Write : Instagram| Blog| Twitter|

[Helen White · Rating 3 out of 5]

A beautifully illustrated survival guide. How to have an adventure whether camping or canoeing or hiking or cycling. The book is presented as a discovered diary full of advice this concept is wasted as there is no mystery or story after the brief introduction. If you want to know how to pack a survival tin, how to make a raft,tie knots or build a shelter this is a beautiful way to find out.

[BrookesEducationLibrarian · Rating 5 out of 5]

This detailed and stunningly illustrated compendium will encourage young readers to embrace the mysteries of our world and adequately prepare themselves for an adventure!

[Kirsten Paoline König · Rating 5 out of 5]

Vlag & Wimpel 2020
geïllustreerde kinderboeken
categorie Informatief

[Ta Dat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cuốn sách đẹp tuyệt vời. Nội dung lại càng hấp dẫn hơn khi đọc cùng con trai.

[Jillian (Peapod Historical Bookery) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Where... where do I begin with this... I am speechless. I closed the book and felt like I was still lost inside it. And that is an instant *favorite* for me.

If I had been given this book when I was younger, this would have been one of my most treasured books. I would have read it over and over and over. I would have studied the skills it teaches, practiced them with whatever I could find in my backyard, and imagined myself going on adventures all over the world.

This is such an amazing, gorgeous book. It's exactly like opening up an adventurer's notebook: seeing all their beautiful watercolor sketches and handwritten details of their adventures, with little notes and reminders written just for you. It's filled with facts about nature and wildlife, about camping in all kinds of environments, about necessary skills and safety when out on an adventure. It's filled with illustrations to study, words to devour, information to absorb. It's absolutely incredible.

It looks like the age range for this book is middle grade through young adult; I think middle grade readers would probably enjoy this the most, and I think this book would appeal to so many different interests and purposes. Art lovers have a watercolor masterpiece to enjoy on every page. Fans of adventure stories have a journal full of snippets of adventures from all over the world. If you're looking for a book to spark imagination, to use as a story starter or a writing prompt (for any age writer, adults included), this one provides so many opportunities to take the information and images on the page and envision what happened in each location, to tell your own story about the Unknown Adventurer or use the settings and situations for your own characters' adventures.

I don't have the words to heap enough praise on this beautiful, wonderful, amazing book. I'll be buying myself a copy so I - and one day, my toddler, when he's old enough to not rip the pages out of this treasure - can devour every word over and over again, and then imagine new adventures of our own.

Final verdict: I'm obsessed with it! I thought this book was amazing! It's now officially one of my favorite books! I shall be shouting about it from the rooftops for days and I am currently recommending it to everyone I come in contact with!


{ Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a review copy. Review originally posted on my blog, PidginPea's Book Nook. My reviews are honest and my opinions are my own; your reading experience may vary, so give it a read and see what you think. :) }

[Theediscerning · Rating 3 out of 5]

This certainly deserves five stars or more from the visual aspect, for it really is a wonderful book, with superlative illustrations of landscapes and other scenes. But as for the text, well – it's a bit muddled, really. It's supposed to be a guide to outdoor living and exploration, so the reader can learn a heck of a lot, from knife safety and what kind of tin to pack, to how to cater for yourself up a creak without a paddle, and even how to make like a bear in the woods. The details and little illustrations for those pages are fine, yes – but why dress the whole thing up as a fictionalised diary? I thought we'd at least get a bit of mystery and drama from the notes, some hidden kind of story adding to the purpose of the script that backed up their allegedly being found in a remote shack. Instead it's a missed opportunity, and the mystique won't make a bookworm into a country-phile, any more than it will sit with the "don't do this without adults" disclaimer heavily pressed on us at the start. So the text, as worthy as it is, comes at us with a peculiar flavour, and one that said to me a straighter approach would have taught us more. Still, it perhaps would not have had the excuse to look this good...

[Elisa_in_neverland · Rating 5 out of 5]

Una piccola meraviglia che consiglio sia ai grandi (come me) che amano i libri con edizioni uniche e con pagine meravigliose da sfogliare e amano la natura e vorrebbero saperne un po’ di più sulle altre culture e scoprire piccoli accorgimenti e curiosità dell’esplorazione nelle sue sfumature; ma anche e soprattutto ai più piccoli (magari futuri esploratori) che amano leggere e amano la natura e si stupiscono ancora nel trovare la bellezza anche nelle cose e nelle esperienze più piccole o quelle che spesso diamo per scontate (che purtroppo in un mondo materialista come questo, è un’eccezione e un pregio raro trovare). Una guida meravigliosa, che dà tanti piccoli insegnamenti. Ho amato tanto il fatto che diverse volte nel testo viene raccomandato al lettore il rispetto per la natura e i suoi numerosi abitanti, perché non c’è esplorazione che tenga se questo manca; così come l’educazione e il rispetto per chi condivide con noi queste avventure e piccole lezioni di vita e risoluzioni pratiche che possono tornare sempre utili (che nella vita non si sa mai). I disegni poi sono di una meraviglia unica, da rimanere a bocca aperta, mi incantavo ogni volta a guardarli.

[Stephanie A. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pure artistic splendor, aimed at kids but suitable for all ages, that purports to be a reproduction of a cache of notebooks by an “unknown adventurer” found in a trunk in the Amazon, thought to date from the mid-1960s (pardon me while I die laughing and/or cry at the idea of this being a long-ago time very different from now for today’s kids).

The content itself is more of a general survival/camping/outdoor exploring guide, peppered with anecdotes about global expeditions, and that gets a bit dry if you try to read more than a few pages at a time. But the subsequent book tells the actual story of one of those adventures and more fully capitalizes on the potential in this premise, so this serves as a good launching point for where it and any future installments come from. And let's be honest, it's very easy to pretend this is a real journal, and if I found a real journal with this level of colored-pencil illustration detail and handwritten notes at an estate sale or something, I would buy it immediately no matter what was in it. So as a work of art, this is to be cherished.

[Jeanne Grace · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received an Advanced Reader Copy from Lincoln Children's Books and Netgalley for my unbiased opinion of the book. I LOVE THIS BOOK!!!! The note from the editor at the beginning of the book, as to how the book came to be made me fall in love before I went any further. This book is middle grade and above. It was great on the very first page stating not to try anything without adult supervision. The Lost adventure is great for getting children outside and living the adventure. Being resourceful rather than having your nose in front of a device inside the house all day. It makes you believe adventure is possible not just something you see on tv!!!! Run don’t walk and buy this book for your children. You won’t be disappointed.

[Emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not what I was expecting.

The subject of the book isn’t something I’d typically choose to read about but I was drawn in by the visuals. The illustrations are wonderfully atmospheric and full of character. Definitely worth a look if you appreciate or study illustration.

Whilst the book was very informative, the facts were delivered in a format I didn’t particularly enjoy. I’d have much preferred an organised adventure journal, complete with a narrative arc, that uses fact pages sparingly between the different chapters to flesh out the story.

[Shatiel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Uno dei libri illustrati più interessanti e più belli che io abbia avuto tra le mani.
Probabilmente lo acquisterò per me stessa e ho anche visto che ne è stato pubblicato un altro.
Se volete fare un regalo a vostro figlio a cui piace la natura o inventare storie avventurose, questo è il libro perfetto!
C'è tutto quello che bisogna sapere per partire all'avventura, dal costruire una zattera, una casa sull'albero, misure di soccorso e sicurezza...tutto completamente illustrato a mano!
Davvero un libro stupendo!

[Ngo Linh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sách giấy đẹp kinh khủng khiếp. Tranh ký hoạ chì màu siêu đẹp. Đọc xong cảm thấy được truyền cảm hứng để đi wild camping và ký hoạ, mình rất thích những trải nghiệm phiêu lưu như vậy. Thôi đời mẹ chỉ picnic và camping khu dịch vụ thôi, đến thời Chích Bông hi vọng sẽ có những trải nghiệm thú vị hơn. Sau này mình muốn cho con đi leo núi, ít nhất 1 năm 1 lần để nó mạnh mẽ hơn, cả thể chất và tinh thần. Dạy con cả ký hoạ nữa.

Trừ 1 sao vì mình muốn nhiều tranh ký hoạ hơn nữa, thay vì vẽ những checklist và tutorial

[The Endless Unread · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very detailed survival guide for young children. I do love the illustrations too. However, the illustrations feel as though they should be read with 3-D glasses on as the images give that feeling of a little blurriness and the text is way too small. Beautifully laid out though. With some tweaks this could be made into a five-star read but as it is I am afraid I can only rate what I see.

[Cat · Rating 5 out of 5]

It took a while, but I found a copy at my local library and loved it! I will have to take the editors word for it that this was an actual found book in a hut in the jungle. It was an awesome read! Everyone who loves the outdoors should own this or buy it for a kid. With it you could survive walking around the world! Where was this book when I was growing up?? Awesome book!

[Iiris]

Beautiful. I found stories and tips I have never heard before, but the very best thing was to get truly immersed into this book and to dream about adventures. I found myself hoping this book to be smaller so it would be easy to carry. (Also it would be nice if it looked more like a lost notebooks, I wasn’t a fan of this white colour!)

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

Want-to-be explorers will be drawn to this handbook of all kinds of outdoors survival advice. Truly excellent water color drawings of everywhere outdoors from the Arctic to the tropics. Numerous sketches. Captions are in very small print. There was so much to include.
Reminds me of The Dangerous Book for Boys by Conn Iggulden out in 2007. Could likely supplement a Boy Scout manual.

[Kate Cherry · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is such an incredible book. There is truly a feeling of magic in these pages. The illustrations are beautiful. The stories are gripping. All the while, it also is full of practical advice. I keep asking my local bookstore to reorder this one because every kid I know is getting this for their birthday.

[Magda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quando ero bambina mica li trovavo dei libri così belli, così riccamente illustrati e interessanti come questo. Adesso la divulgazione scientifica per ragazzi è diventata accattivante, ha un’impaginazione fantasiosa, è una gioia per gli occhi oltre a dare informazioni utili.
Questo è un libro perfetto per un regalo o da tenere in vista in libreria, adatto dalla prima elementare in su.

[Silvio · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fuck. I have no words for how perfect this book is in all ways. Stunning. I'm speechless. I'm in love. I haven't encountered a book that brings the beauty and wildness of nature deeper into the heart - and at the same time inspires to experience it in the most human way. Thank you.

[Stephen the Bookworm · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fantastic book to intrigue and inspire
Full of beautiful imagery , intriguing tales and adventurous tasks
This will be my year six book recommendations I visit schools

[Kat · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible book. The illustrations are stunning, and the stories are informative and humorous. Such a great book for all ages. One of the best picture books I've ever seen. Highly recommend!

[nevrstopsmilin · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 🌟

the illustrations are absolutely beautiful

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty, but some of the text and font made it hard to read.

[Tim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful, practical and inspirational (both from an artistic point of view and activities to do with your friends)