Tag Teddy Keen

The Lost Book of Undersea Adventure

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The Lost Book of Undersea Adventure
Unknown Adventurer, Teddy Keen
Frances Lincoln Children’s Books

This begins with the author inspired by his grandmother’s stories, embarking on a quest to find the legendary sea nomads of the Coral Triangle. Five days later something terrifying happens. Having stumbled upon their dangerous cargo it’s the intention of three smugglers to silence him by killing him. He’s tossed from the ferry and struggles to stay afloat until eventually he reaches land – a deserted island. Utterly alone and initially exceedingly frightened, but having found his journal and pencils, he decides to start the journal he’d promised his siblings he’d write. He also puts his survival skills to the test and after a couple of days, he’s made a camp, a hammock, fishing spear and found a way to make fire.
A couple of weeks later he sees that the island is split into two and that something leaps from the water in the middle of the lagoon – a ray perhaps. Not long after he notices a moving light reflected on the water: it’s time to investigate. The following day having finished building a raft it’s time to go. But the waters are extremely dangerous and the next thing he knows is that he’s in a stilt house. Woken by voices and three pairs of staring eyes, they’re not smugglers but children, the adventurer realises.

Prepare to be transported to distant seas and a coral reef with incredible marine life,

discover ancient legends of sea spirits, face unimaginable perils and meet with some amazing people in this exhilarating story of survival and friendship.

Utterly engrossing, the book is presented in the form of an artist’s journal/log with diagrams, close-ups of marine creatures and more.

Journey to the Last River

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Journey to the Last River
Frances Lincoln Children’s Books

Teddy Keen edits a spin-off from The Lost Book of Adventures, an Amazon adventure presented in the form of a scrap book journal belonging to ‘The Unknown Adventurer.’ Smudgy, apparently finger-marked pages and ‘handwritten’ text add authenticity.

Again the written account grips the reader from the start as you learn that the adventurers (the writer, and Bibi who grew up somewhere in the region) are staying in a wooden outhouse belonging to a local villager, preparing for their six week canoe trip into the rainforests. They’ve got the original map ‘borrowed’ from The Geographical Society to help them search for that Last River and discover its secret. The writer hasn’t mentioned this to his companion; instead he’s led her to believe that he’s an artist adventurer.

There’s certainly drama aplenty including an unexpected encounter with a man who draws the supposedly non-existent river in the sand with a stick and Bibi recognises a few of his words including ‘wait’, ’rains’ and ‘guide’ before disappearing again. The two travellers are heartened and eager to continue however.

Continue they do and just over two weeks into their journey they acquire a new crew member, a squirrel monkey that they name Nutkin.

The days pass and the two begin to despair of ever finding what they’re searching for; but then comes the lightning followed by torrential rain.

Suddenly a realisation dawns: perhaps their journey isn’t in vain after all …

Brilliantly illustrated with powerfully atmospheric scenes of the Amazon flora and fauna,

as well as the elemental spreads, there’s a lot to learn from this book with its important final conservation message. Readers will be enthralled by the detail included in both the words and visuals, as well as by seeing the transformative effect the trip has on the ‘writer’.

A superb book that offers huge potential to upper KS2 classes in particular.

The Lost Book of Adventure

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The Lost Book of Adventure
edited by Teddy Keen
Frances Lincoln Children’s Books

Those with a thirst for wild adventures in particular will be immediately attracted to this stupendous tome. Others of us will perhaps take a little more time to be enticed in, but will likely become equally immersed in this amazing collection of notes, sketches and factual snippets that have been drawn, so we’re told by the editor, from the notebooks of the Unknown Adventurer.

Whether or not the claim by Teddy Keen to have discovered these items in a metal container while exploring a remote part of the Amazon, is a beguiling means of interesting readers in the book, or a fact, is immaterial.

What he has produced is a veritable treasure trove detailing all you need to know to flourish living in the wild, be it how to construct a wikiup shelter like those of the Nenet people of Arctic Siberia;

how to make a bottle raft to navigate ancient waterways; or, what the best techniques are for ‘pooing in the great outdoors;

or crucially important, first aid.

Prepare to be conveyed to various parts of the globe as you read lyrical accounts of such adventures as a narrow escape from the jaws of a crocodile in Sri Lanka, surviving a roaring dust storm, or an eye-ball to eye-ball encounter with one of the planet’s most dangerous snakes, a venomous bushmaster. Each of these is gloriously illustrated in a coloured pencil drawing.

Keen certainly succeeded in arousing the spirit of adventure in this reviewer; I’m sure that will be the case for many readers of this totally immersive volume.