If you imagined that all Stone Age people lived in caves, were not very clever, not very clean and said “Ugg” a lot, then think again. Marking the start of all human history, the Stone Age lasted around 3.5 million years (the last part of that was only 71 grandparents ago!). Delve into that incredible time with this book packed full of amazing facts, information, crafts, storytelling and myth debunking to find out what it was really like to live as a hunter gatherer.

Many of our Stone Age ancestors’ everyday needs were similar to ours – how to keep warm, where to sleep and what to eat and drink. We find out how they met those needs, what a typical day was like, what medicine they used and even how they had fun – all brought to life with beautifully detailed illustrations. Dotted through the book are step-by-step craft activities and recipes that give you first-hand experience of some vital Stone Age skills – making a Mesolithic shelter, fat lamps, a digging stick, creating cave art, making a bow and arrow and a fishing hook are just a few.

A fictional tribe member pops up throughout the book to tell us about her life, describing the sights, sounds, smells and emotions she experiences. The safety of a warm cave with flickering firelight and other tribe members nearby, the gnawing feeling of hunger when food is scarce and the excited relief when a deer is hunted.

Prizes

Short-listed for Junior Design Awards 2022 (UK),Short-listed for British Book Design and Production Awards 2022 (UK),Short-listed for Teach Primary Book Awards 2022 (UK),Short-listed for Young People's Book Prize 2023 (UK)

…features lots of activities, from building a shelter to creating cave art, which will allow you to go back in time and live like a hunter gatherer.

When a non-fiction title about surviving the Stone Age is written by a bushcraft and Stone Age skills expert, you know it is going to be good. Live Like a Hunter Gatherer is a beautifully illustrated guide to this prehistoric period packed full of facts and information about survival, medicine and what a typical day was like. ... Live Like a Hunter Gatherer is an essential information source for every KS2 class learning about the Stone Age. It would make an excellent KS2 Guided Reading group text.

interesting facts that takes you back all the way to Stone Age…

Live Like a Hunter Gatherer is our kind of nonfiction…A fascinating, accessible read for independent readers of around 8 years +.

This would be fantastic for any child or class interested in or studying the Stone Age.

It’s full of facts, myths, storytelling and crafts that you can try too! As well as being fascinating, this book makes you appreciate what you have such as a roof over your head, easily accessible food and running fresh tap water!

An intriguing, gently educative resource for home and primary school users.

this non-fiction book is informative and practical. ... The illustrations by @miaunderwood.illustration are rich and enticing. I love the backgrounds on the pages and the endpapers are sublime!

Naomi Walmsley runs Outback2Basics with her partner Dan Westall from their patch of woodland in Shropshire, UK. Specialising in bushcraft and Stone Age skills, they provide unique experiences for schoolchildren and teachers to connect to nature. Naomi is a qualified bushcraft instructor and Forest School Leader and believes that every child should be able to safely light a fire and have at least ten uses for a stick by the age of ten. She has also written for many magazines, including Bushcraft & Survival Skills, LivingWoods and Juno.

So passionate are they about the Stone Age way of life, they have actually lived and breathed it for themselves. Naomi and Dan undertook a five-month Stone Age immersion experience in the US in 2010, living in the wilderness without any modern equipment, profoundly influencing their lives and teaching. Recently (Sept 2020), they appeared in Channel 4’s fascinating documentary Surviving the Stone Age. A three-part series filmed in Bulgaria with six other Stone-Age experts living as a tribe of hunter gatherers for one month. Naomi has co-authored two previous books for GMC Publications Forest School Adventure and Urban Forest School. www.outback2basics.co.uk Instagram and Twitter: @outback2basics.

Mia Underwood is a designer and illustrator based in Brighton, UK. She loves a creative challenge and works with traditional and digital illustration as well as creating 3D characters. Being half Danish she particularly enjoys creating scenes with characters that conjure up the dreamlike and mysterious imaginary woodlands within Scandinavia.