View source for Serious Survival: How to Poo in the Arctic and Other Essential Tips for Explorers by Marshall Corwin

{{infobox1
|title=Serious Survival: How to Poo in the Arctic and Other Essential Tips for Explorers
|author=Marshall Corwin
|reviewer=Jill Murphy
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=A comprehensive, interesting and fun companion book to the children's TV show that shows 12-14 year olds on extreme Outward Bound-style expeditions. It's particularly apropos for sporty children and also for those who don't like reading fiction.
|rating=4
|buy=Yes
|borrow=Yes
|pages=216
|publisher=Collins
|date=October 2007
|isbn=978-0007262007
|cover=0007262000
|aznuk=0007262000
|aznus=0007262000
}}
''Serious Survival'' is the companion book to the hit BBC children series Serious. In Serious Jungle, Serious Arctic, Serious Desert, Serious Amazon, and Serious Andes, groups of twelve to fourteen year old children embarked on extreme Outward Bound-style expeditions encompassing some form of environmental project as an additional challenge. It's been wildly popular, winning awards all over the place, and deservedly so. More than 30,000 teenagers auditioned for the last series. They've been led by some of the big names in this field: Bruce Parry, Ben Major, Polly Murray, and it's been fantastic, life-affirming, inspirational television.

Clearly, it was going to be difficult for a companion book to capture the exhilaration of the television programmes, but it makes up for this by including a huge amount of information. ''Serious Survival'' will tell you "how to poo in the Arctic" and many more tips on the practicalities of extreme tourism, but it will also tell you about Robert Scott and Roald Amundsen, the differences between the two polar regions, the Northern Lights, Arctic wildlife and much more. Rinse and repeat for the jungle, the desert, the Amazon and the Andes. As a mix of travel advice, geographical and environmental gazeteer and inspirational tales, it could have ended up a hopeless mish-mash, but ''Serious Survival'' has made sensible editorial choices and presents its information in an attractive and clear way. It's been well-designed. The result is an interesting companion to the TV series, or an eminently readable overview of some of Earth's most extreme environments.

It'll be greedily gobbled up by any child who watches the show or who like Ray Mears and other such people. Additionally, it'll make great reading for all sporty kids with an interest in the environment or even non-sporty kids with an interest in the environment. It's also a perfect choice for the young reluctant reader. Even this old and haggard bookworm rather enjoyed it.

My thanks to the nice people at Collins for sending the book.

If they really don't like reading fiction, you could also try the Science Museum's offering [[Why Is Snot Green]] and [[Crimebusters]] by Clive Gifford.  You might also gain something from [[Six Days Inside A Mountain by Louane K Beyer]].

{{toptentext|list=Top Ten Books For Children Who Think That Farts Are Funny}}

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[[Category:Children's Non-Fiction]]