Fun and Games: Book-Inspired Activities that Make Reading Come to Life

What’s better than you and your kiddos cozying up to a stack of new books? Using the pages as your blueprints to some awesome real-life adventures!

By rtemmasmith May 19, 2015

What’s better than you and your kiddos cozying up to a stack of new books? Using the pages as your blueprints to some awesome real-life adventures! We’ve paired up a collection of new children’s titles by local authors and illustrators with nearby activities for you and your family, ripped right from the stories.

This month, we went straight to the good stuff: fun and games. We’ve matched each book, which features kids playing, creating, imagining, and building, with a parallel outing. From taking in a flick at an old-timey movie house to digging a hole to China, these adventures speak to the child in all of us.

Dial It Back a Few Decades

Read this: Telephone, by Mac Barnett. Illustrated by Jen Corace. A silly take on the classic parlor game, this features a flock of telephone wire-perching birds passing on a message—and garbling it hilariously. Perfect for read-alouds and story times.

Then do this: If reading Telephone gets you in the mood for retro fun, visit Adventure Playground in Berkeley. Unique in the Bay Area, it eschews the cookie cutter environment of regular playgrounds and instead provides opportunities for truly creative play. Besides climbing and ziplining, kids can build a fort with scraps of wood and real tools—and then paint it. Designed for kids seven and up, younger children are welcome as long as a parent stays within arm’s reach.

11 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday and Sundays only
Berkeley Marina
Berkeley, CA
510-981-6720
Online: ci.berkeley.ca.us/adventureplayground/

Do you have any other suggestions pairing great books with real-world fun? Tell us in the comments below!

—Emma Bland Smith