Mission:Explore Food
By: Mission:Explore LondonWe need your help to create Mission:Explore Food, the latest in the series of children's books which The Society of Authors have said "encourage children to explore the world around them, developing their curiosity, confidence and courage along the way…".
Mission:Explore Food will be a revolutionary cookbook, guide, fieldbook and atlas to what we grow in the ground, chase around fields, put in our mouths, poo out our bums and plant our seeds in. The book will include scores of both delicious and disgusting recipes, missions, games and wisdom on good ways to find, eat and dispose of food.
Written by The Geography Collective (a team of teachers, academics, artists and explorers) in partnership with City Farmers and illustrated by Tom Morgan-Jones, Mission:Explore Food will go where no other family food-related book dares!
The first Mission:Explore Book won the Hay Festival & National Trust Outdoor Book of the Year and is Pink Stinks for being forward thinking and positive on gender issues. Our next book will be even bigger and better.
Mission:Explore Food will cover sustainable, healthy, slow, self-grown, urban farmed, ethical, local and international food. Readers will be encouraged to think critically and creatively about where their food comes from, how it's transported, traded, processed, prepared, cook, eaten and disposed of.
Chapters in the 320 page full colour and illustrated hardback book include:
1. Grow
2. Harvest
3. Cook
4. Eat
5. Waste
6. Soil
In true Mission:Explore style readers will be challenged to complete missions which involve planting, digging, watering, finding, foraging, growing, investigating, testing, questioning, sifting, rolling, talking, throwing, climbing, harvesting, hunting, picking, sharing, learning, soiling, pooing, weeing, recycling, trading, singing, creating, cooking, stiring, boiling, grating, skimming, churning, thinking, mapping, eating, tasting, smelling, sniffing, burning, chilling, drinking, gargling, farming, playing and fooding.
We will be preparing free units of work to help teachers use the book in schools across the curriculum. The missions will also be integrated with www.missionexplore.net so that readers can collect points and earn rewards for their efforts.
If you are a charity or food related organisation and would like to support the book in a way that is not directly on offer on this page please let us know.
We plan for the book to retail at £20 a copy and to launch at the Hay Festival 2012. Please help us to make this happen and be a part of something special!
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Here are a few words from other people on Mission:Explore.
"Mission Explore by the Geography Collective and published by Can of Worms Press was ‘mischievous, quirky and fun. full of truly challenging, thought provoking and slightly bonkers activities. Nicola Davies particularly liked the ‘Mint Stint’ which asks readers to see how far they can cycle sucking the same mint, giving page space for the route maps of three attempts.’ But the judges admired the book as being a lot more than frivolous entertainment , liking the way it fosters an attitude of observation , enquiry and engagement with the world,, asking children to interact with their environment, interact question it and think about it – and to play with ideas, places, objects - a playful approach that is the foundation of all creativity." Society of Authors on becoming a runner up for the Best Education Writer of the Year Award 2011.
"Mission:Explore is bold, cool, exciting, innovative, geographic, educational…and just plain fun! Every curious kid, budding geographer, and responsible parent should have a copy!" National Geographic Education
"Mission:Explore is splendid - great fun, and a lovely way to get children out into their environment and using their brains." Sue Palmer, author of Toxic Childhood
"We love the creativity of Mission:Explore and the way it creates experiences for all children so they can share, learn and play together." Pinkstinks Approved
"Designed to be read, scribbled on, illustrated, smeared, scratched and sniffed, it may just be the most revolutionary geography-related book ever published." Geographical Magazine
"Learning to engage with the world around you is the key to effective citizenship education, Mission:Explore sits at the heart of what we believe is good citizenship education!" Ade Sofola, Citizenship Foundation
"THE KIDS' CLASSIC - Attempting to travel with a wriggly child? Buy a copy of Mission:Explore, a book of 102 spy-style tasks and assignments, such as 'How far can you travel while sucking the same mint?' and 'Make a map revealing local cat routes'. It's like bringing along a nanny with endless patience and a James Bond fixation." Sunday Times Travel Magazine
* Project Update 1 *
Download a first draft sample of 12 missions that will feature in Mission:Explore Food in the update tab. Each spread comes from a different chapter in the book.
** Project Update 2 **
If we hit our target we'll give Mission:Explore Food Taster to every school in the UK.
We've decided to make Mission:Explore Food Taster, a lite version of Mission:Explore Food that will include 150 missions, activities and recipes. If we hit our funding target we'll send a PDF copy to every school in the UK and make it freely available to download. Schools will be free to print missions activities and share the book with families. Mission:Explore Food Taster will be a book in its own right and include all of the chapters that feature in Mission:Explore Food.
Update 12
10-10-2012 04:17 PM
Hello!
It’s now nearly a year since we started working on Mission:Explore Food and with your help we made it happen. On September 1st the book was published and since then we’ve been getting wonderful reviews from children, parents, teachers and food-related organisations. We’ve also been shortlisted for the Best Learning Outside the Classroom Innovator 2012 and would very much appreciate your vote of here!
This week we are starting a Mission:Explore Food Expedition and will be travelling around the UK working with children and families to explore food in new ways. We are visiting lots of schools and are posting our public events on Facebook.
We were delighted this week when the the Guardian recommended Mission:Explore Food to help children learn about growing, harvesting, cooking, eating, waste and soil during World Food Day next week.
Mission:Explore Food is currently just £15 from Guardian books (saving £5) and this includes postage and packaging. We (of course) think the book makes an excellent gift. If you are thinking of buying one or more copies do take advantage of this offer before it ends. It will also help our book ratings if you do it soon!
Click here to order Mission:Explore Food from the Guardian for just £15 (incl p&p) click here.
Thank you very much for your ongoing support. Keep exploring!
Mission:Explore
@MissionExplore @GeoCollective & @City_Farmers
Update 11
28-08-2012 07:49 PM
Hello again explorer!
Can you be in London this Saturday?
Join us for an epic mission across the capital to celebrate the launch of Mission:Explore Food in print. We’re going to be exploring London to harvest food from every nation on Earth in an attempt to create an awesome world map entirely from food that we’ve gathered.
For full details visit http://foodworldmapmission.eventbrite.com/. See you soon!?
The Mission:Explore Team
Update 10
28-08-2012 12:38 PM
Hello Explorer,
It’s now just 4 days until the printed edition of Mission:Explore Food is officially published. We’re very excited!
To celebrate we’ve made the Kindle eBook edition (for iPad, iPhone and Kindle Fire) available to download for free for a very short time. Click here to download your copy now before the price changes!
The next four weeks are crucial for us as we work to make the book a success. It would be fantastic if you could help us in our effort to get the book noticed. Here are a few things that you can do to help.
Talk about it. Please tell people about the book. You could tell a friend, write a blog post, tweet, or add the book to a newsletter. Our press release might help you. We would also love to have a review on Mumsnet and other websites.
Get it. It’s (not) nearly Christmas! Mission:Explore Food makes an awesome present for winter celebrations, birthdays and other celebrations. Ordering Mission:Explore Food now on Amazon or in your local bookshop will help us to get the book charting and noticed. Please do pre-order!
Review it. Reviews really do help! If you can add a short review to Amazon, Waterstones or other websites that will really help us to make the book a success.
Come and play. We’ll be sending out another message soon with details of our (re)launch event in London this Saturday. Follow @MissionExplore on Twitter and check for another update soon for full details.
Thank you so much for your support.
The Mission:Explore Food team
Update 9
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19-07-2012 01:23 PM
Hello Explorers!
We’re delighted to report that Mission:Explore Food is now in our Explorers HQ. It’s beautiful and we can’t wait to get them in the post to you.
Flooding at our printers in Wales has slowed things a little (well, lots) and we’re very sorry for the delay. The good news is that we’ll be signing your books next week and getting them to you shortly after that… so not long to wait now!
The eBook is available on Graphicly, Kindle Fire and iBooks now. If you’ve seen the book and have got a couple of minutes it would be fantastic if you could add a short review and lots of stars for us!
The printed book will officially be available on September 1st, ready for Harvest Festivals. Our wonderful distributors, Can of Worms, currently have an offer for two copies for £30 (saving £10) on their website though. This follows our trip to Latitude Festival where we worked with over 1,000 children from our Mission:Explore HQ Spaceship (van). We’re going to be taking this van on a little tour in September and October. If you’d like to host a visit let us know on our Facebook page here.
Thanks again for your support and we’ll post again when the books are in the post.
The Geography Collective & City Farmers
Update 8
21-06-2012 12:31 PM
Dear Explorer,
Next week we’re going to be getting a delivery of very special alternative cookbooks. The story of these books is a beautiful one. It’s a story of collaboration, cooperation, creativity and overcoming dangers. You be aware that the River Rheidol in Wales recently broke its banks and parts of Aberystwyth flooded. This included our printers and their presses.
As we’re understanding guerrilla geographers we didn’t panic, but opened a copy of Mission:Explore Food and picked a recipe. Within a day Helen had baked some of Menah’s Country Cookies from the Cook chapter. They were sent in a tin on a rescue mission to the wonderful printing team the same day. Hopefully the sugar helped to get them through what must been a horrid time. We’re pleased to say that the books are being printed on schedule in a secret location and we’ve been promised that they’ll be arriving next week.
We’re very excited about our little launch party next Saturday at Hackney City Farm. We would love to see you there if you can make it. Please visite http://missionexplorefoodlaunch.eventbrite.com to RSVP ASAP. We’ll be at Latitude Festival in the kids area too. Do come and say hello if your going too.
The book is officially being published in September.
Thanks again for your ongoing support.
Keep exploring!
The Geography Collective with City Farmers
Update 7
15-05-2012 08:02 PM
Hello!
Mission:Explore Food is going exceedingly well. Following your support we’ve been working hard to make missions, ink illustrations and plan for the birth of our latest book.
The book is packed with some stunning missions and illustrations. We promise that you will gasp at a few too.
We REALLY need your help to pick which cover to make into the final thing. If you have a moment, please click through this link and vote on which one you like best:
On June 30th we’ll be having the Mission:Expore Food launch party at Hackney City Farm. Everyone who contributed to the crowd funding of the book were given the date soon after we hit the target. You’ll be getting an invite to confirm if you can make it soon too. If you’re at either Hay or Latitude festivals do come and track us down to try a few food-missions.
The book will be officially published during September to coincide with UK harvest festivals. The book is available to pre-order on Amazon now.
To keep in the loop you can follow us on Twitter @GeoCollective and @MissionExplore and ‘like us’ (along with most things in the world) on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/MissionExplore.
We’ll be posting another update soon.
Many thanks,
The Geography Collective
Update 6
08-05-2012 03:49 PM
Hello!
Mission:Explore Food is going exceedingly well. Following your support we’ve been working hard to make missions, ink illustrations and plan for the birth of our latest book.
The book is packed with some stunning missions and illustrations. We promise that you will gasp at a few too.
On June 30th we’ll be having the Mission:Expore Food launch party at Hackney City Farm. Everyone who contributed to the crowd funding of the book were given the date soon after we hit the target. You’ll be getting an invite to confirm if you can make it soon too. If you’re at either Hay or Latitude festivals do come and track us down to try a few food-missions.
The book will be officially published during September to coincide with UK harvest festivals.
To keep in the loop you can follow us on Twitter @GeoCollective and @MissionExplore and ‘like us’ (along with most things in the world) on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/MissionExplore.
We’ll be posting another update soon.
Many thanks,
The Geography Collective
Update 5
27-02-2012 09:43 PM
Hello Mission:Explore Food Supporter,
We’re writing to let you know how awesome we think you are. We’re so grateful to you for investing your time and money in us and this important book.
With nearly 7,000,000,000 people in the world you are one of the 0.000001472% of human beings that have supported Mission:Explore Food so far. It’s a number that makes you very special indeed. As of now… an amazing 103 people have backed Mission:Explore Food. Between us we’ve crowd funded a massive 31% of what we need to ink, design and print the books. With just 3 days left we’re very excited about two contributions that between them will help us to reach the 66% mark.
Please help us to fill this gap, reach our goal and make the book by sharing our crowd funding campaign however you can. Here are a few ideas:
- Share this link on your Facebook page http://www.pleasefund.us/projects/missionexplore-food,
- Tweet about Mission:Explore Food and encourage others to contribute,
- Phone someone and don’t let them put the phone down until they’ve made a contribution,
- Email anyone who might be interested through newsletters,
- Blog about the book and encourage readers to be illustrated into the book.
Remember, we can do all kinds of great things in return for currency. We can illustrate someone you (dis)like into the book (how cool is that!) or even run an experience day in your (local) school. If you work for an organisation that does something lovely and cool we can talk to you about fitting what you do into the book too.
If we hit our target we’re going to make a creative commons digital version available to all schools for free. We think that’s something to talk about… so please do share it however you can and help us to reach our final target.
Very many lovely thanks,
The Mission:Explore Team
Update 4
17-02-2012 12:29 PM
Thank you very much to everyone who has contributed so far. It’s amazing to have your support. With just 13 days to go we’ve got a big hill to climb… but we’re positive that we’ll be able to make this book happen. It would be fantastic if you could help us by sharing this page (http://www.pleasefund.us/projects/missionexplore-food) on Facebook, Twitter or any newsletters that you can access. It’s all about people power!
Thanks again for your support and we’ll post another update soon.
Update 3
10-02-2012 04:29 PM
We are very pleased to announce that we will be doing a version of the book for North America.
Update 2
26-01-2012 04:29 PM
If we hit our target we’ll give Mission:Explore Food Taster to every school in the UK.
Update 1
16-01-2012 12:29 PM
Please download a first draft sample of 12 missions that will feature in M:Explore Food
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