New Releases by Fiona Danks

Make This Book Wild is a fun children's scrapbook filled with creative activities to help children connect with nature.

Have you ever wanted to find fairies in the garden, meet a unicorn, ride a dragon or share a picnic with a mermaid? Just because you've never seen these magical creatures doesn't mean they don't exist! The Wild Things of stories and the imagination are everywhere, but they're shy, secretive, sometimes camouflaged and only reveal themselves to true believers. This fantastical guidebook will help you track dragons, create fairy fashions, brew magic potions, build snow unicorns, discover trolls and go on night hunts to capture moon magic. Search forests, meadows, fields, ponds, rivers and the seaside, as well as everyday places like school playgrounds, local parks or among the pots on the patio. You can discover the mysteries of nature all year round and at any time of day or night. So switch your imagination on, use your senses, brush up on your magic skills and take a giant leap into the world of the Wild Things. Activities include: Tracking dragons Creating fairy fashions Brewing magic potions Building snow unicorns Discovering trolls Capturing moon magic Creating secret messages Making a magical spellbook Looking after the natural world Designing a witches' costume Creating your own broomstick Making wild mini worlds Bringing tree monsters to life Leaving trails of monster prints About Lonely Planet Kids: Lonely Planet Kids - an imprint of the world's leading travel authority Lonely Planet - published its first book in 2011. Over the past 45 years, Lonely Planet has grown a dedicated global community of travellers, many of whom are now sharing a passion for exploration with their children. Lonely Planet Kids educates and encourages young readers at home and in school to learn about the world with engaging books on culture, sociology, geography, nature, history, space and more. We want to inspire the next generation of global citizens and help kids and their parents to approach life in a way that makes every day an adventure. Come explore! Important Notice: The digital edition of this book may not contain all of the images found in the physical edition.

This fantastical guidebook to magical outdoor adventures will help kids track dragons, create fashions fit for a fairy, brew magic potions, build snow unicorns, discover trolls, go on night hunts to capture Moon magic, and more. Full color.

Adventures, games and crafts to get you outdoors all the year round. Playing outdoors should be an essential part of growing up; developing your imagination, keeping fit and letting the wild world weave its magic spell on you. In The Wild Year Book, Fiona and Jo have selected 70 of their favourite activities to help you enjoy spending time outdoors, season by season. Perhaps you'll want to play camouflage games in Spring and make enormous bubbles in the summer, challenge your friends to a foraging bake-off in the autumn, or create ice mobiles in the winter. With this book you will never be short of inspiration! Over 100,000 copies sold of Fiona and Jo's Going Wild series.

Building a den, fort, treehouse or hideaway is part of childhood’s imaginary world, where anything might be possible. Dens are universal play places: you can make them almost anywhere, out of almost anything. The Den Book uses descriptive text and ample photographs to inspire children (and their adults) to build amazing dens outdoors, for themselves, for their toys, or for the imaginary creatures who live in the woods or the park. What makes a good den? It should be secret: perhaps you need to know the password before you are allowed to enter. It should be a place to hang out with friends. It should be a place where you can escape into your imagination. The book includes basic construction tips on how to build a den, how to waterproof and furnish it, and specific advice on several different sorts of den, including: Sleep out dens, Outlaw dens, Party dens, Beach dens, Urban dens, Nature detective dens, Fairy Forts, Miniature dens, Garden dens, Treehouses and Teepees.

Forts are universal play places, you can make them almost anywhere, out of almost anything. Fantastic Forts uses descriptive text and ample photographs to inspire children (and adults) to build amazing forts outdoors. The book includes basic construction tips on how to build a fort, how to waterproof and furnish it, and specific advice on several different sorts of fort, including: Sleep Out Forts, Party Forts, Beach Forts, Nature Detective Forts, Fairy Forts, Miniature Forts, Treehouses and Teepees.

Building a den, fort, treehouse or hideaway is part of childhood's imaginary world, where anything might be possible. Dens are universal play places: you can make them almost anywhere, out of almost anything. The Den Book uses descriptive text and ample photographs to inspire children (and their adults) to build amazing dens outdoors, for themselves, for their toys, or for the imaginary creatures who live in the woods or the park. What makes a good den? It should be secret: perhaps you need to know the password before you are allowed to enter. It should be a place to hang out with friends. It should be a place where you can escape into your imagination.

You don’t need to live right on the water’s edge to have fun at the beach! The Beach Book is all about finding wild places at the seaside, as well as by lakes and rivers and making the most of opportunities to explore and enjoy all these places have to offer. You can have fun: Discovering beach wildlife (eg. rock pooling, crabbing and fishing or making a rock-pool viewer) and exploring sand dunes and beach combing. Making the most of lakes and rivers by foraging, damming and diverting streams and boat racing. Using natural resources to play and invent new games (e.g., stone Jenga and skittles, ball runs and boules or funny face games. Being creative (e.g., making driftwood monsters, marram grass dolls and creating sand paintings).

Fiona Danks and Jo Schofield are back with more wonderful ideas for fun outdoors even in the most challenging weather! Imagine - jumping in the biggest puddle you can find! - Or running barefoot and feeling squidgy mud ooze up between your toes! - Or run up the nearest hill to feel the wind try to carry you away! When it’s wet, or windy or cold, there’s no need to stay cooped up indoors; it’s a great opportunity to rush outside for some fun. - Go on an animal hunt and find the creatures that come out in the wet. - Fly a kite in the wind and catch falling leaves. - Take your camera into a white world and see how many different icy patterns and shapes you can find. There are loads of exciting and creative things you can do in the natural world when the weather’s wild. So don’t wait for the sun: take this book with you and go outdoors for a wild weather adventure!

The stick is a universal toy. Totally natural, all-purpose, free, it offers limitless opportunities for outdoor play and adventure and it provides a starting point for an active imagination and the raw material for transformation into almost anything! As New York's Strong National Museum of Play pointd out when they selected a stick for inclusion in their National Toy Hall of Fame, 'It can be a Wild West horse, a medieval knight's sword, a boat on a stream, or a slingshot with a rubber band . . .' In this book Fiona Danks and Jo Schofield offer masses of suggestions for things to do with a stick, in the way of adventures and bushcraft, creative and imaginative play, games, woodcraft and conservation, music and more.

Replace screen time with fresh air fun. “Here’s a book that will bring the ‘great’ back into the great outdoors.” —Michael Morpurgo, author of War Horse Following the success of Nature’s Playground, Go Wild!, and Make it Wild!, in their latest book, Run Wild!, Jo Schofield and Fiona Danks focus on inspiring children of all ages. “[Run Wild!] introduces a cornucopia of ideas for outdoor activities, along with mesmerizing color photos of children and teens creatively enjoying themselves in fields, woods, and backyards, and at rivers and beaches. The text and safety tips are aimed at parents and counselors organizing activities in the wild, but the high-quality color photos will draw a younger audience as well . . . From skimming stones to making leaf masks to whittling walking sticks to following treasure trails, here’s an enticing array of ideas for outdoor fun and wilderness discovery.” —Booklist

Make it Wild! shows how children can enjoy the endless opportunities offered by wild places. Looking at what nature has to offer, they explore the potential of diverse raw materials such as snow, leaves, and sticks and suggest how to work with them. The book demonstrates how to use nature's free, renewable resources to make anything from a clay monster to an ice lantern or flaming balloons. Making things outdoors involves creativity and imagination, as well as learning how to solve practical problems, how to work together, the need to see a process through from start to finish, and the safe use of potentially dangerous tools — all of which help children acquire the skills they need to cope with the world and develop a commonsense understanding of the way it works.

Young people these days are often homebound, entertaining themselves with the Internet, television, video games, and text messages, but completely disconnected from the reality of the great outdoors. Many have never experienced simple pleasures such as telling stories around a warm campfire, camping outdoors, or whittling a stick. Go Wild! is the perfect book for families with children ages 10 to 14 wanting to get in touch with the natural world. The authors describe a range of wild and fun adventures for families to share. Readers learn potentially life-saving skills that give them confidence, independence, and a sense of environmental awareness. Topics include building shelter, building a fire, foraging for food, cooking outdoors, tools and weapons, bushcraft skills, water and keeping clean, and safety. From making a catapult to catching crayfish, creating fire without matches to constructing a tepee, Go Wild! is all about thrilling activities, amazing discoveries, and young people having the time of their lives in the great outdoors.

This delightful illustrated book is a guide to introducing children to the great outdoors through fun activities in nature. Designed for use by families, carers, play workers and teachers, the book sets out guidelines for safe and engaging play outdoors, with useful tips on how to hold children's attention on longer excursions. The book is divided into seasons, with activities appropriate to each. For example, in spring, children can explore aquatic life in ponds and streams, collect material to make birds' nests or look out for growing bulbs; in autumn they can collect berries or make collages with fallen leaves. Throughout the book, the emphasis is on helping children gain an appreciation of nature's patterns, giving them confidence in the outdoor environment in a way that is educational, safe and, above all, fun. The authors, Fiona Danks and Jo Schofield, have produced some outdoor activity sheets in conjuction with the Cub and Scout Naturalist Activity Badge, sponsered by Natural England. To view these acitivity sheets, click here. For more information on Natural England, click the logo on the left.