A practical guide to outdoor skills and crafts, designed to coax kids away from their screens and discover how to become intrepid explorers. Mountaineers, seafarers, astronauts, cyclists, hikers, divers, gliders, aviators even the most famous and daring explorers of all time began with small-scale adventures that gave them the courage and the ideas to pursue their greatest achievements. This book aims to give young people the know-how and confidence to get out and about with practical tasks and activities, mini-adventures, rustic crafts and by telling some truly inspiring tales of real-life explorers. Throughout, Tiger gives us snippets and anecdotes from his own daring expeditions. Including step-by-step activities like how to light a fire, cooking on a fire, foraging, building shelters, filtering water, tying knots and reading the clouds, children can learn basic bushcraft and survival techniques to practise over and over again. The unique craft activities making wild maps, a racing raft and a kite will spark creativity and encourage imaginative play. Not just a valuable resource for learning practical skills, this is also a book to inspire dreams and show that they can come true with the right mindset, perseverance and resilience. Highly illustrated spreads dotted through the book introduce a selection of real-life historical adventurers, such as Amelia Earheart and Matthew Henson, and describe how they came to accomplish such jaw-dropping feats. AGES: 5 to 11 AUTHOR: Tiger has a natural affinity for outdoors skills and wants to inspire and educate others, of all ages, to spend more time enjoying these pursuits whether that be through adventure sports, outdoor cooking or getting out and exploring their local landscapes. He caught the bug for exploring from his 'crazy' parents and four older sisters, who showed him what was possible and lovingly encouraged his earliest forays in the stunning South Downs National Park in Sussex, UK. Tiger is an accomplished public speaker, having given talks on exploration and nature to audiences of over 250 people, including his old school and local chambers of commerce. This is his first book for GMC Publications. 200 colour photographs, 30 colour illustrations
Table of Contents:
My Discovery 7
Think like an explorer 10
Kit 12
What to Take 14
Reading a map 16
Making a wild map 18
Real explorer: Muhammad al-Idrisi 22 Risk 24
First aid in the wild 26
Real explorer: Junko Tabei 30 Skills 32
Making cordage 34
Knots to know 36
Using a knife 42
Whittling a peg 44 Fire 46
Lighting a fire 48
Cooking on fire 50
Campfire recipes 52
Making a paper boiler 56
Real explorer: Matthew Henson 58 Foraging 60
Edible insects 62
Edible plants 64
Poison plants 67
Real explorer: Bungaree 68 Shelter 70
Stick den 72
Earth den 76
Tree nest 78 Water 82
Boiling water in bamboo 84
Filtering dirty water 86
Solar-distilling seawater 88
Knowing the sea 90
Build a racing craft 94
Real explorer: Jeanne Baret 98 Weather 100
Measuring wind strength 102
Real explorer: Amelia Earhart 104
Air behaviour 106
Make a paper kite 110
Understanding clouds 116
Make a shadow stick compass 118
Make a magnetic field sensor compass 120 Index 124
About the author/acknowledgements 126
About the Author :
Tiger Cox is a passionate outdoor enthusiast. He is the youngest member of the Fly Sussex paragliding team, based in Sussex, UK. Taught by his father, Tiger has passed on his skills to countless beginner fliers - even teaching his imprinted (trained to accept humans as their 'parent') Lanner falcon, Safire, who often accompanies him up to great heights on paragliding flights. Tiger has a natural affinity for outdoors skills and wants to inspire and educate others, of all ages, to spend more time enjoying these pursuits - whether that be through adventure sports, outdoor cooking or getting out and exploring their local landscapes. He caught the bug for exploring from his 'crazy' parents and four older sisters, who showed him what was possible and lovingly encouraged his earliest forays in the stunning South Downs National Park in Sussex, UK. No stranger to wild adventures and expeditions, Tiger has taken on many epic challenges. At age 13, he completed a sailing voyage from Sussex in the UK to the Caribbean on a wooden boat that his parents built. The final stage of the journey saw them sail across the Atlantic Ocean in under three weeks without sighting land or other ships. At age 18, he cycled 600 miles across France, wild camping all the way in a bivvy bag - despite having smashed his front teeth in his first training ride (by hitting a lamp post) but began the journey a week later anyway. He also competed in the 2015 world fireball (a racing sailing dinghy) championships in Wales. Tiger is an accomplished public speaker, having given talks on exploration and nature to audiences of over 250 people, including his old school and local chambers of commerce. This is his first book for GMC Publications.
Review :
A fantastic book to inspire adventure.
Whether it’s learning about building shelters, filtering water, reading clouds or cooking on a fire you have (safely) made yourself, this guide from a real-life explorer has it all. You’ll also discover more about adventurers past and present.
A fantastic book for 5-11 year olds on how to get into adventuring...It would make a perfect present for anyone looking to help encourage youngsters into the outdoor lifestyle.
How to be an explorer’ aims to give young people the know-how and confidence to get our abs about - with practical tasks and activities, mini-adventures, rustic crafts and by telling some truly inspiring tales of real-life explorers that you won’t have heard of before.
...a wonderful outdoor skills manual for kids! This book is written in a way that empowers kids to spend time (and thrive!) outdoors, but doesn’t sugarcoat how hard it is to live a subsistence lifestyle... This gives inspiration and additional biographical information about historical explorers, many of which are people of color... Inside the book are practical skills like safe knife usage and water filtration... There is a lot of safety information, and some tasty looking recipes for cooking over a campfire!
An excellent new book for young explorers by @tigercoxexplores
This is a compendium, packed with everything a person would need to really get outside and explore nature. This is one to keep in mind for gifting- it’s beautifully made and full of so much information that kids will spend loads of time just pouring over it.
Truly exceptional and 'kid friendly' in organization and presentation, "How To Be An Explorer: Outdoor Skills and Know-How for Young Adventurers" is a 'real world' practical instructional guide and 'how to' manual for developing outdoor skills and enjoying crafts projects. Effectively designed to coax kids away from their screens and discover how to become intrepid explorers.
With the author’s enthusiasm for his subject shining through in his writing, this is a super book to encourage children away from their screens and outdoors for some adventuring.
It’s a wonderful book to engage with nature in an exciting yet safe manner which leaves them full of self-confidence and gives them genuine survival skills for the great outdoors.
A fantastically comprehensive guide about developing outdoor skills and my goodness there are just so many things we want to do that are explained here (and I love the photographs used throughout - makes everything seem so achievable)
In this beautiful book, @tigercoxexplores shares a wealth of advice on how to develop outdoor skills. It includes over 20 step-by-step activities, 6 inspiring stories from the forgotten explorers of history, & so much more. I love reading books like this. It's always interesting to read about history, nature & learn a skill by creating something new. As you discover new things, you can apply that knowledge acquired out in the wild.
This book contains information on all the things an explorer needs to know - from what to take in an essential outdoor kit, how to read maps, knots, whittling, cooking on a fire, foraging, filtering dirty water to understanding clouds! There’s so much to learn and there’s stories about real explorers to further inspire you! You could read it all at once or delve in sections that interest you that might help you on your next outing into the wild!
This book is a real gem of a find...It's packed full of useful information for how to be an explorer. From types of knots to use to measuring the strength of the wind. It's also interspersed with profiles of different explorers...A great book for anyone who loves the great outdoors.
How to Be An Explorer is the perfect guide to the great outdoors. This is a fun one to prepare for a trip or even just to encourage your kids to get outside and explore the world around them through a whole new lens. It is packed with practical and fascinating information not to mention outdoor crafts.
Another great addition to our exploring resources….It’s a must for outdoor loving families.
An awesome guidebook for the budding wilderness scout. Gear up, explorers! Because as any good adventurer knows, the key to a successful foray into the unknown wildness is preparation, and this handy hardcover is the perfect place to start.... A fantastic reference guide for the adventurous bookworm...Cox has compiled a commendable compendium of the types of outdoorsy activities that kids love to learn about. A nice addition are the mini-biographies of the historical explorers, a lineup that includes a diversity of genders and ethnicities. The design, photography, and illustrations are all eye-catching, well laid-out, and colorful.
This is exactly the kind of book I would have loved as a kid. Part-instruction, part-guide, part-biography, the pages explain everything a young person needs to know to explore and thrive in the wild. From edible plants, to making your own cordage and compass, to the different ways you can get clean water and build shelter, this book nurtures the explorer in all of us. I love the personal anecdotes from the author throughout the book telling of his successes and failures... Cox imparts his knowledge to encourage the next generation to get outdoors and explore!
This is a great book to dip into and there is a wide range of outdoor explorer ideas, craft activities and fascinating tales of six real-life explorers including Tiger Cox's own exploring experiences...This is the perfect book for any keen mini explorers out there and one that is already a firm favourite in our house.
I have 100% fallen for this book. Not only do we learn about the extraordinary life of author Tiger Cox and about a diverse collection of other incredible explorers, it is also jam packed with practical skills and activities to create mini explorers who are confident taking risks and embracing adventure.
It is a really inspiring book for any child (or adult) interested in the outdoors...The book not only gives practical advice but really communicates the wonder that the natural world offers by including facts about insects, plants, birds, and others. The use of photos of children doing the activities provides an additional 'can do' element to the book.
A useful and inspiring book for children...a book for all the family to enjoy on a camping holiday or just a fun day outside in the local park. The ideal guide for budding adventurers!
Our outdoor BFF is this wonderful book! From reading the clouds to racing rafts we will be busy all summer long! A book for an explorer!
