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.

Dig to China

Read this: Sam and Dave Dig a Hole, by Mac Barnett. Illustrated by Jon Klassen. This author-illustrator team has a reputation for deadpan humor, and their latest offering doesn’t disappoint. Kids will laugh as Sam and Dave optimistically dig for treasure in their yard, always changing direction or tactic just short of discovering, yes, a gigantic diamond.

Then do this: Bring pails and shovels and spend a morning at one of the few remaining San Francisco playgrounds that hasn’t yet been remodeled. These older parks boast good old-fashioned sand on the ground, and there’s nothing like it for looking for treasure, making tunnels, burying friends up to their necks, or the old stand-by, digging to China. Locations include Mothers’ Meadow, West Portal, the Boat Playground, Miraloma, Buena Vista, and Bernal Heights.

Online: sfrecpark.org

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

—Emma Bland Smith