Mission: Survival series is written by popular TV personality, Bear Grylls. The books in the series are adventurous in nature aimed at young adventure lovers. Children love to read stories about adventures and Bear Grylls is an expert adventurer. Bear Grylls is a real life survival expert who has undergone numerous missions for the benefit of others. He is a highly famous television presenter with numerous wilderness survival television series in the US and the UK. Due to this success in various missions, he was appointed as the Chief Scout in the UK at a very young age of 35. The boy scouts of the country look upon Bear Grylls as an inspiration. To inspire the young generation and let them enjoy a taste of adventure, Bear Grylls has written the Mission Survival series.
The Mission Survival series has a total of 6 books with the first one being published in the year of 2008. In the series of books, the adventures of the protagonist Beck Granger are closely followed. Beck Granger is a teenager with excellent survival skills. His parents David and Melanie Granger worked as Special Operations Directors for Green Force, an environmental action group. They travelled to some of the remote tribes of the world and Beck accompanied his parents frequently.
Beck Granger grew up amidst danger all the time due to the work nature of his parents. As a result, he has hands on experience on survival techniques that are only known to military experts. Beck’s parents taught numerous skills to Beck so that he could accompany them from a very young age. Quickly, Beck became the youngest survival expert who is constantly facing adventures.
Beck’s favorite uncle is Professor Sir Alan Granger who is fondly called as uncle Al. He loves working in his lab, but he is famous in the country as a judge of a reality television show. After the loss of his parents, Beck looked up to his uncle Al for guidance. Al dutifully acted as a guardian to Beck, becoming his second father. Taking adventure trips is a part of the profile of uncle Al and Beck made sure that he goes with his uncle whenever he can.
Another important person who stays with Beck during his adverse times is Peter Grey, Beck’s best friend from school. Unlike Beck, Peter is physically weak, but he is a headstrong individual. He can make the best out of any situation and he is responsible to ensure that Beck learns his social skills. The two friends are constantly seen bickering, but they support each other all the time. Peter’s favorite equipment is his digital camera that his parents presented to him on his birthday.
In the Mission Survival series, Bear Grylls presents the gripping tale of individual adventures of Beck Granger as he is often stranded alone in one of the scariest places on the earth. Being a survival expert, Beck tackles all difficult situations with great courage, putting his life skills to use. Through the journey of Beck Granger, readers will learn a lot of tips about surviving in the wilderness without any resources. These books ensure that the adventure lovers learn basic tips in case they decide to take up a mini adventure on their own. At the end of the each book, Bear Grylls presents important illustrated survival tips to educate the readers.
The first book in the Mission Survival Series is Gold of the Gods in which Beck Granger suddenly finds himself amidst snakes, howler monkeys and jaguars in the Columbian Jungle. He faces the harsh reality of death due to starvation and manages to find a way to survive. Beck accompanies his uncle Al to Colombia on the request of Mayor Rafael De Castillo, who is a descendant of a great explorer of the past who allegedly discovered a city of gold. The secret was believed to have died with the explorer, but Don Rafael seeks the help of uncle Al to find the city. However, both of them goes missing and Beck was in a position to bring his uncle back. He seeks the help of the twins Marco and Christina, the children of Don Rafael and set out to the wilderness of Colombia. The young kids build rafts, deal with wild river rapids, build camps, defend from dangerous animals and stay alive in the jungle.
In the second book of the Mission Survival series, Beck travels with his uncle to Ankat Village to interact with the native people of Alaska. Their plane sets off to the remote area with just three passengers along with the pilot. Due to some unknown technical difficulties, their plane crashes in the middle of Alaskan wilderness, leaving uncle Al badly injured. With no sign of rescue in near sight, Beck sets out with his new friend Tikaani to cross the mountains to get some help. The icy mountains are made even more dangerous by the bears and wolves that show no mercy. Beck had to cross an extremely dangerous river and look for food sources. During their journey, they had to face the worst ice storm and they build a snow cave to brace the weather. As Beck manages blizzards and white water rapids, he also had to keep track of the hungry wolf trailing Beck to devour him. In this book, Bear Grylls teaches numerous life skills to survive on icy lands.
In each of the books in the Mission Survival series, Bear Grylls takes the readers through different types of dangerous parts of the earth. As you read the book, you will surely marvel at the raw beauty of nature and start to appreciate it. The rawness of nature can be a great threat to survival if you don’t know how to live without the resources. Through his journeys, Beck Granger pulls the readers out of their comfort zone and shock them with the imminent danger that is just around the corner. At the end of each book, you will learn a handful of survival skills through the experience of Beck.
by Raja Priya