Our Story
Every child deserves a bigger world.
A global education and conservation initiative using storytelling to inspire curiosity, literacy, and care for the planet.
Who We Are
Our mission
Little Explorer, Big World is a global education and conservation initiative that uses storytelling to inspire curiosity, multilingual literacy, cultural understanding, and environmental stewardship.
Through the creation and donation of bilingual books, educational media, and community partnerships, we help children in remote and underserved communities discover the world around them—and their place within it.
Our stories explore themes such as cultural diversity, wildlife conservation, entrepreneurship, empowerment, and global citizenship. Many of our books are available not only in widely spoken languages, but also in Indigenous and underrepresented languages, helping children connect with stories in the language of their heart.
Since its founding, the project has donated more than 35,000 books and collaborated with schools, teachers, NGOs, and community leaders across multiple continents. From rainforests and islands to mountain villages and Indigenous communities, our mission remains the same: to bring education, inspiration, and hope to places where access to books and educational resources is often limited.
We believe that every child deserves the opportunity to dream, explore, and become a steward of the world they will inherit.
Our Founder
Founded by Explorer and Educator Kike Calvo
Little Explorer, Big World was founded by photographer, author, National Geographic Educator, and explorer Kike Calvo, whose work in more than 130 countries has inspired a lifelong commitment to education, conservation, and cross-cultural understanding.
“Back in 1982, I was a smiley, curious, and energetic 10-year-old. I was in the fourth grade, class 4B to be precise. My favorite class project: to write a story. What you see below is the original story that was crafted by my imagination. The story of a mosquito that could not fly became so popular among my classmates, that I even wrote a sequel in the following grade. For years I remembered this manuscript, thinking that one day, I would turn it into a storybook. It was during the 2020 COVID-19 quarantine that I decided to sit down and rewrite the story to inspire kids around the world.”
— Kike Calvo
Explorers Club, Fellow · Royal Geographical Society, Fellow · Safina Center, Fellow (2019–2023)
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