The Lost Book of Adventure: From the Notebooks of the Unknown Adventurer

This whimsical compendium claims to be the found journals of an “unknown adventurer.” Between first-person vignettes that span the globe—“I had been exploring the vast and wild Okavango Delta in Botswana”; “the snow falls beneath me in Antarctica, revealing a bottomless crevasse”—a truly dizzying array of adventure-related information is presented, all accompanied by an assortment of small, highly detailed sketches in blue pencil that are sometimes accented with full color and interleaved with vibrant illustrations of marvelous places and thrilling moments. From a taxonomy that depicts no less than 19 types of rafts to useful itemizations of equipment and supplies, each spread holds a wilderness of compellingly specific information. Though the book has a decidedly retro feel, contemporary kids will find useful information for building outdoor skills alone and with others (a disclaimer notes, “This book contains a number of dangerous activities” that call for adult supervision). Ages 9–12. (Mar.)