We have recently been completing a project on adventurers and explorers for our most recent speaking and listening group. We used a lot of books for this project to get an idea of just some of the amazing things humans have done and achieved. I thought it would be worth sharing our favourite books here.
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Adventurer Specific Non-Fiction Titles
Two that we have absolutely loved at Adventure Starts at Bedtime and Fantastic Female Adventurers. I have shared both of these books on my Instagram feed and have included these below.
Fantastic Female Adventurers I thought might be a bit old, and I bought it on a bit of a whim when I was ordering another couple of books. It’s absolutely amazing and includes 14 fabulous women. This book formed the basis of Em’s studies as she learnt about Beth French (and I’ll write more about that project soon). You cannot help but be inspired when you read this book. The stories are all really varied and, despite my reservation that it might be a bit old, Em has really really enjoyed this book and it has become a firm favourite.
We also really loved Adventure Starts at Bedtime. I had seen this a lot on Instagram and thought it looked wonderful; it seems a lot of my followers agreed as eight or so people got in touch to tell me they’d also bought this book after seeing me share about it.
We have read this book at bedtime to the older children and marvelled at the stories it contains. There are thirty different stories included and they’re all amazing and exhilarating. It’s beautifully produced and a real book to treasure over time I think.
I also purchased Great Adventurers by Alastair Humphreys. This book is really lovely and different to the other two. Alastair explains why he chose each of the people he has included; that is the reasons that they inspire him on his own adventures. The mix of comic book style, infographics and the general story really helps to engage the children. I also like how it suggests the sort of kit they would have needed and then a section for the reader to think about their own great adventure. It’s a very inspiring book that shows children that adventurers are just normal people who do incredible things.
Fictional Explorers
During this topic, we also had an extended read loud with The wonderful Katherin Rundell book, The Explorer. I’ve heard a lot of good things about Katherine Rundell and her books and this came at the right time for us. It was absolutely fantastic and it was lovely to share the book with the two older children. We took time in the day to enjoy this one and they really loved it. In fact D started reading it again as soon as we’d finished reading it aloud! I really enjoyed this and I’ve purchased a couple more of Katherine’s book for the children for upcoming birthdays.
Supporting Books
And finally, I thought it might be worth sharing some of the other books we used alongside those mentioned above. There are a couple which are staples in our home education and tend to come out for most projects such as general atlases and flag books as well as the wonderful Atlas of Adventures series of books. We use this series of books a lot and we spent some time looking at the spread on the Amazon (for The Explorer story).
We also enjoyed the Lost Book of Adventure and looking at some of the skills such as knots and fire lighting and thinking about the sort of adventure we might like to go on and which skills we would most need to learn. I’ve written a fuller review of this particular book here.
