Nick Offerman’s New Book Is a ‘Thinly Veiled Screed’ Against Too Much Tech (Exclusive)

It’s not that Nick Offerman is against screens or technology, exactly. But with his new book, Little Woodchucks: Offerman Woodshop’s Guide to Tools and Tomfoolery, he hopes to inspire both young and young-at-heart readers to make something with their own two hands.

“I feel like our society is mired in a period where we have all been tricked into engaging with one another angrily in one arena or another, to the delight and profits of billionaires and corporate overlords who just giggle and laugh and shitpost,” Offerman, 55, tells PEOPLE.

“When I get frustrated with the state of affairs, or groups of my fellow citizens choosing to discriminate against another group, or behave in a way that’s indecent, instead of shouting at them, which doesn’t seem to have much effect, I try to figure out something positive and creative to do, even if it’s not a direct response to what I’m seeing around me,” the author and Emmy Award-winning star of Parks and Recreation continues.

“And so I hope that I’m at least planting the seeds for what will become solutions or steps in the right direction, rather than just offering an argument to someone online.”

Little Woodchucks features 12 family-friendly woodworking projects from his Los Angeles-based Offerman Woodshop, in a follow-up to his hit 2016 book Good Clean Fun. It features beginner projects like a handmade box kite alongside more advanced items like a little free library, all accompanied by engaging photos and Offerman’s signature wry wit.

“This book is a thinly veiled screed. It’s an anti-corporate, anti-technology propaganda [for] not just kids, but parents and woodchucks of all sizes,” he explains. “This book is one in an ongoing sequence of offerings reminding us to be part of the world, and that I think there’s a lot more to entertain you in your child’s face than any video game you could ever lay eyes on.”

Offerman himself learned how to build things as a kid, right down to the house he was raised in that his dad “got from a local farmer and wheeled down the road.” He points out that creating together can bring a family closer in the process.

“There’s something conspiratorial about that, banding your family together in a piratical way and saying, ‘Okay, me hearty family, what can we make together to make us special and make our lives authentic and different from all those stupid landlubbers that live in the rest of the town,’ ” he says.

The actor even got his start in show business thanks to his woodworking skills, explaining that his ability to make things has “made me very powerful and capable in my life, which has made me very valuable to people.”

Take PEOPLE with you! Subscribe to PEOPLE magazine to get the latest details on celebrity news, exclusive royal updates, how-it-happened true crime stories and more — right to your mailbox.

“They didn’t say, ‘Oh, it’s Tom Cruise, let’s make him the lead in our movie,’ ” he jokes. “They say, ‘So we’ve got Tom Cruise, but see that guy over there? He can build the scenery. Give him three lines and he will happily build the set.’ And he did, and that was me, and eventually, they cast me as a guy who was a woodworker. And it was my big break. It all has played a huge part in my life because I was capable at making more than just my specialty.”

Offerman especially wants kids to discover the joy of making something with their hands at a young age, even — or especially — if they uncover other passions in the process. “People are so fascinating beyond the technology they have in their pockets, and I think it’s just really easy to get sucked into the distractions of technology and this is a great way to have a lot of fun,” he says.

“Nature has bestowed a gift on each one of us. Mine is making things with tools. And so your job is to figure out what your gift is, and for some people, it’s software, or accounting, or something that is more cerebral,” he continues. “When we get everybody doing their own thing, together that makes a beautiful, functioning civilization.”

As automation and artificial intelligence encroach on just about every aspect of today’s society, Offerman believes that his message has never been more urgent.

“The more AI takes over certain things, the more we’re gonna need people to simply have skills with their hands. Robots can only do so much. We’re still gonna need a bunch of MacGyvers and Han Solos to keep this bucket of bolts running,” he says. “Because no matter how much technology, no matter how many rocket ships and systems and metropolises we build, none of that stuff is ever going to feed us.”

But despite the sincerity of his message, the book is also, to borrow a phrase from his previous work, Good Clean Fun. Many of the illustrations feature kids Offerman knows in real life, in cheeky scenarios that will make readers look twice. And the writing itself reads less like a textbook and more like a witty friend guiding you over your shoulder.

“There is a funny sense of mischief in my writing, because even though it’s aimed at making things to play with with your kids, it’s made for adults to read to 8-year-olds,” he explains. “I even use bad language, where I’m like, ‘Kid, I’m about as smart as you’re gonna goddamn get.’ Because I want to feel like a fun uncle, where it’s like, Uncle Nick’s showed up on a motorcycle, and I want to check out his life choices.”

“It’s important to me that they’re legit,” he adds, of his books. “That people consider them good and effective teaching sources, but at the same time, I wish every textbook would be delivered with some charm and a sense of humor. I’ll be much more likely to then want to study it.”

Little Woodchucks: Offerman Woodshop’s Guide to Tools and Tomfoolery is available now, wherever books are sold.