I received a free ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Pretty basic. Nothing much new here.

My son loves to go outside. This book helps to find creative and fun things to do with his time besides run around. It has so many fun and easy to follow projects that will keep your child engaged and excited to go back for more.

This is definitely a book to get from the library, as you'll probably feel pretty cheated if you spend the money on it yourself. It's a rather random list of things that kids can do to unplug outside, with stock photos and simple directions.

The list: Camp out, build a campfire, find Orion, go on a hike, pick up trash, go crabbing, play cat attack (throw water balloons at chalk cat targets on the sidewalk), make a treasure hunt, go on a bug safari, go on a night hike, fix a puncture, learn to yodel, play "she'll be coming round the mountain" on a ukulele, make a pine cone feeder, paint like Pollock, make a rock stack sculpture, photograph birds, build a forest shelter, have a picnic, bake potatoes in a fire, learn to rock climb, make a skateboard slalom, go off-road biking, do a fun run, read a book.

Some of the things on the list seemed really random, like the detailed directions for how to fix a puncture (like in a bike tire) and learning to yodel. I don't think I really know how to yodel after reading it, either, and it seems like such a strange thing to put on a list of outdoor activities. I didn't feel that the directions were very good for many of the activities, either, and I'm not sure what kid needs directions on how to make a sandwich for a picnic.

This is probably a great book for school libraries, as an idea generator for kids who don't spend much time outside.

I read a temporary digital ARC of this book for the purpose of review.

My first red flag in reading this book was on page 5 where it mentions part of the fun of being outside can be "getting away from grown-ups". As a parent, this rubbed me wrong. I totally get what the author was trying to say but I wish it had been phrased more positively. I would not read this line to my kids or my students.

Many of the ideas in this book could be easily thought of by parents or found in a quick search on Pinterest. The pages about learning to yodel and playing a ukulele seemed bizarrely out of place. I was hoping to find some interesting/NEW ideas for my kids in this book but I was let down.

I read this with our 8 year old who loved the idea of a book like this. We live in the woods and enjoy coming up with new ideas for activities to do outside. This book had some very basic ideas which may be a good fit for kids who live in a city but otherwise, the ideas were very basic and some of them did not make sense unless you live in a very specific area (for example 'going crabbing').

I love the idea but the execution just didn't work that well. This book felt a little all over the place and not very detailed. The pictures and illustrations were great and I think if the author were to expand more on the ideas and pick more of a theme, this could be a great book for elementary aged children to encourage them to get outside more. Thank you to NetGalley and Lerner Publishing Group for a copy of this e-book. All opinions are my own.

Thank you Netgalley for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
I thought some of the ideas like setting up camp and building a shelter out of branches and leaves were useful. But the author also included very basic activities like taking pictures of birds and going on a picnic that weren't as creative. I liked the pictures but the book could have included better activities.