The Stick Book
Loads of things you can make or do with a stick

By Fiona Danks and Jo Schofield


The Stick Book
Online price: £9.99
Paperback, 128 pages
Published: 15th March 2012

Category: Outdoor Guides, Science and Nature


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.

Discovering sticks

Adventure and bushcraft sticks

Make a fire

Cook over a fire

Build a den

Make a DIY tent

Make a staff

Make a stick sword

Make a catapult

Make an ancient spear-thrower and a spear

Make a bow and arrows

Make a pea-shooter

Magic sticks

Make a star wand

Make a wizard's wand

Make scavenging sticks

Make a witch's broomstick

Make a wiggly snake

Make shadow pictures

Make stick characters

Make stick and clay animals

Make a fairy house or an elf castle

Make miniature worlds for toy people and animals

Make hobby animals

Make woodland monsters

Make woodland magic carpets

Make a flying creature

Make fairy and fish sticks

Make wild storyboards

Creative sticks

Draw in mud and sand

Make charcoal pencils

Make a paintbrush

Make a picture frame

Make a woody crown

Make a necklace

Create stick art for a woodland gallery

Choose a stirring stick

Make a nest

Make a dream-catcher

Make a loom for wild weaving

Weave a wild basket

Make stick and paper lanterns

Make natural mobiles and wind chimes

Make a wreath

Decorate a seasonal stick tree with stick stars

Stick games

Throw a stick for a dog

Play pick-up sticks

Make a flying machine

Play capture the flag

Play quoits

Play Aunt Sally

Invent your own stick games

Do the stick tower challenge

Play tracking with sticks

Play the woodland mapping game

Sunny sticks

Navigate with a stick and the sun

Make a sun clock

Measure the radius of the earth

Musical sticks

Make percussion sticks

Make stick rattles

Bushcraft busking with a can guitar

Watery sticks

Play Pooh sticks

Mini raft challenge

Make a pond-dipping net

Make a fishing rod

Measure the depth of a stream

Woodcraft and conservation

Make your own walking/tracking stick

Make a stretcher

Make a mouse trap

Plant a tree

Make a habitat pile

Make a creepy-crawly hotel

Make a bird feeder

Stick stuff

Index

Acknowledgments

When I leafed through the book, I was so enthralled that I immediately planned a den-building party and picnic for my daughter's tenth birthday.

- You Magazine - The Mail on Sunday

A great book to encourage outdoor play and exploration at very little cost!

- Right Start

This is an excellent addition to the authors' other books on outdoor play.

- Juno

Ideal for entertaining all ages.

- Western Morning News

This book might just get you out of one of those, 'Mammy I'm bored' situations.

- Woman's Way

Musical instruments, dens and bush craft are all within one's grasp, with a stick! (So is poking an eye out so do be careful.)

- Four Shires magazine

This book offers masses of suggestions for things to do with a stick, in the way of adventures and bush craft, creative and imaginative play, games and more.

- Evolve, Natural History magazine

A book jam-packed full of ideas of sticky stuff!...a great resource for practitioners.

- Early Years Educator

Explores the almost limitless potential for play offered by sticks. It is an attractively packaged book of 70 activities for children in a handy format for stuffing into a rucksack or coat pocket. The book teems with colour photographs and the text is easy to follow.

- BBC Countryfile

Truly more ideas than you can shake a stick at!

- Oxfordshire Limited

Will open up a world of creativity: from fashioning a plain staff to wild weaving or making a stick and paper lanterns. Simplicity abd a deep satisfaction go together as when two sticks and a piece of string achieve the sophisticated job of measuring the circumference of the Earth.

- Guardian

What are you waiting for? Go outdoors, grab a stick, have The Stick Book handy, fire up your imagination and off you go. This is an amazingly different book bursting with ideas, a unique guide to fun and games, grab yourself one now!

- Armadillo

Fed up with your children's demands for the latest electronic gadgets? Why not give them a stick instead?

- Oxford Times

Delights in this most universal of playthings… I have been removing sharpened sticks from under beds all half term.

- Daily Telegraph

A book bursting with the most brilliant ideas - you will never have reluctant country-walkers again.

- Angels & Urchins

These ideas will help the whole family get more hands-on with nature.

- BBC Wildlife magazine

A guide to the ultimate free toys for children...Packed with ideas to suit the most adventurous and boisterous youngsters  and those who'd rather take their time creating things to take home.

- Buckinghamshire Life

This book, which offers over 70 interesting things to make or do with a stick, will open up a world of creativity: from fashioning a plain staff to wild weaving or making stick and paper lanterns. Simplicity and a deep satisfaction go together, as where two sticks and a piece of string achieve the sophisticated job of measuring the earth. There are loads of photographs to add inspiration. 

- The Guardian

Masses of suggestions for bushcraft, creative and imaginative play, games, woodcraft, conservation, music and more. Having someone's eye out is not included.

- Bookseller

‘A beautiful and inspiring book, bursting with practical suggestions which will appeal to every child’s imagination. Reading it I wanted to rush out to my nearest wood immediately.’

- Julia Donaldson, Children's Laureate and author of The Gruffalo and Stick Man

Packed with photos which bring the projects to life, this is a great book to have at hand to inspire children to get outside and play.

- Parents in Touch

Refreshingly simple and endlessly entertaining, the stick is the essence of play… It speaks a universal language and it's free! Lively photographs opposite straightforward instructions summon the inspiration for making everything from a sun clock andnest to a slingshot and broomstick. All ages, if you dare.

- ForeWord Reviews


Publication Details:

Binding: Paperback, 128 pages
ISBN: 9780711232419
Format: 200mm x 140mm
100 colour photographs

BIC Code: WN, WSZ
BISAC Code:  FAM002000, NAT000000
Imprint: Frances Lincoln


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