Survival Skills for Kids in Pictures
Because "read this paragraph and imagine it" has never taught anybody to build a shelter. Most survival books for children are walls of text with a few gray drawings. This one is the other way round — forty-five outdoor skills, each on its own two pages, each drawn step by step in full color, so a child can see what to do, then go and do it, without a grown-up reading it to them.
On every single skill
- Five numbered picture steps — the drawings carry the instruction, the words just name what you can already see
- A "Watch out" — the one mistake almost everybody makes
- A "Try it in the backyard" — a safe way to practice today, at home, without going anywhere wild
- A "Level up" — one harder version for when the first one is easy
- 225 step-by-step drawings in total, plus a page for grown-ups and nine never-ever rules
120 full-color pages · 8.5″ × 11″ · Paperback and Kindle on Amazon, or the 121-page printable PDF on Etsy — print it as often as your family or classroom needs.
Every step is a picture
A kid opens a survival book, finds a page with no pictures on it, and quietly puts it down again. So this book puts the picture first on every step — and then asks the child to go outside and try it in their own yard.
Drawn, not described
225 hand-drawn diagrams, five to a skill, numbered in order. Knots are drawn strand by strand. A compass has a real dial. Nothing depends on a child picturing it correctly from a paragraph.
Practised in the backyard
Every skill has a safe version you can do at home today — a stick tripod on the lawn, a whistle code across the yard, a compass walk from tree to rock. Skills you have only read about are not skills yet.
Honest about the limits
Every fire skill says an adult is needed, on the page, every time. The book deliberately teaches no first aid and no wild food — and explains to the child exactly why not.
A few of the 120 full-color pages
Forty-five skills. Nine parts.
Ordered the way a day outdoors actually goes wrong — what to do first, then everything that keeps you comfortable while you wait.
Part 1
The First Five Minutes
The STOP rule, why staying put gets you found, marking your spot, being big, bright and loud.
Part 2
Before You Go
Packing a day bag, the pocket safety kit, leaving a plan, layers, reading the forecast.
Part 3
Getting Found
Whistle codes, signal mirrors, ground signals a search plane can read, making a phone work on almost no signal.
Part 4
Shelter & Staying Warm
Picking a spot, building a lean-to, the emergency blanket, and the ground-insulation mistake nearly everyone makes.
Part 5
Fire
The fire triangle, building a lay, lighting it, feeding it, putting it out cold to the touch. Every fire skill requires an adult, and says so on the page.
Part 6
Water
Where to look, why you never drink from a stream, boiling it safely, collecting rain and dew.
Part 7
Finding Your Way
A compass, a map, finding north with a stick, handrails, and retracing your steps.
Part 8
Knots & Rope
The five knots that do almost everything, drawn strand by strand.
Part 9
Reading the Outdoors
Clouds, tracks, wind, and judging daylight with your hand.
Book specifications
| Ages | 7–12 |
|---|---|
| Pages | 120 full-color pages |
| Size | 8.5″ × 11″ — big enough to follow with muddy hands |
| Skills | 45 skills in 9 parts, 225 step-by-step drawings |
| For parents | A page for grown-ups at the front on supervision, and nine never-ever rules at the back |
| Editions | Paperback · Kindle · 121-page printable PDF on Etsy |
| ISBN | 979-8-19-432992-2 (paperback) |
| Author | Michael Petitpas — Michael Petitpas Media |
What this book deliberately leaves out: it does not teach first aid, and it does not teach children to find or eat wild food. Both need a real person teaching in real life, and no illustration is reliable enough to tell a safe plant from a dangerous look-alike. The book teaches the opposite rule instead — you do not eat anything you find outside — and explains why.
A skill you have read about is not a skill yet.
Give a kid forty-five skills they can actually see, and a backyard to try them in, and "what would you do if you got lost?" stops being a scary question.
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