• Quiz

Children go on a scavenger hunt for books and develop a summer reading list based on books in the home and recommendations from family and friends. This activity is best suited for children aged 8-12. See also, our page Dr. Dave's Family Favorites, for monthly book picks. It also has a printable archive to help you or your child choose reading materials for summer or all year long!

2 sessions

Paper
Pens, pencils, or markers

Did you know the average child and adolescent spends between 21 and 28 hours per week watching television? Children spend more time watching television than any other activity except sleeping. Though watching some television can be entertaining and educational, studies have shown that watching more than 3 or 4 hours of television a day can have a negative impact on reading and other academic skills. Conversely, children who read more tend to develop reading skills more easily, have a larger vocabulary, and do better in school.

The question is: Do children who read more develop reading skills more easily? Or do children who develop reading skills more easily read more? The answer to both of these questions is yes. This is known as the reciprocal effect of reading volume. Building reading skills is often a long and laborious process. As reading skills develop, reading becomes less difficult and more enjoyable so children are likely to read more, which then develops their reading skills further, which leads them to read more, and so on. On the other hand, if children fail to fully develop these early reading skills, they tend to read less and are less likely to further develop their reading skills.

So why do some children develop early reading skills more easily than others? Though it may seem logical to chalk this up to the innate ability of the child and assume that not much can be done to change it, studies have shown that the amount of reading a child does has a large impact on the development of early reading skills and intellectual functioning. In other words, reading can make your child smarter. Studies also show that children who are read to as preschoolers and have experience with books and other print media achieve more success in early reading skills.

Studies have also shown that children who watch carefully constructed educational programs aimed at their age level (such as Sesame Street) do better on pre-reading skills at age 5 than children who watched infrequently or not at all. Some television, especially if it’s designed to be educational, can actually help your children become good readers.

For more information about television’s effects on reading and academic achievement, visit our Fact Sheet, Television's Effect on Reading and Academic Achievement.

Prepare for the session by asking each participant to bring a copy of one magazine that their child subscribes to, reads, or that is frequently found in the home to the session. Let participants know that they will be cutting the magazine. You may also want participants to bring their own scissors.

Gather the materials needed for the session (see Materials section).

1. Explain to your child(ren) that they will be interviewing people about their favorite books and authors. They will use the results of the interviews to develop a summer reading list. They will also be doing a scavenger hunt to explore the books in their home.

2. Develop a list of interview questions with your children. Sample questions include:

• What were your three favorite books when you were my age?
• Why did you like them?
• Did you read them more than once? If yes, how many times?
• Do you have or did you have a favorite author when you were a child? If yes, who was the author?
• What kinds of books do you like to read now?
• What books do you recommend that I read this summer?

3. Give your children a set amount of time (e.g., two days, a week, etc.) to interview five to ten people of varying ages. Interviews can be done in person, on the phone, by mail, or by e-mail. They should interview at least one person their age, at least one person a few years older than them, and several adults. All answers should be recorded. Ideas of people to interview include siblings, friends, parents, grandparents, other family members, teachers, neighbors, librarians, etc.

Note: The scavenger hunt works well with an individual child or a group of children. If you are doing it with more than one child, consider turning it into a competition (e.g., the child who finds the most books from the scavenger hunt list in a set period of time wins a prize of a book or some other token).

1. Explain to the children that they will be doing a scavenger hunt for books. You will give them a type of book or an item to search for; their task is to find the book or item and bring it to you.

2. Read the following rules:

• All books must be put back in their place after the scavenger hunt.
• You will give them the first clue. When they have found a book that matches that clue and brought it to you, you will give them the next clue. You will keep each child’s books in a separate pile.
• They must bring back a different book for each clue on the scavenger hunt list.
• After 30 minutes you will stop the scavenger hunt. At this point, you will go through the scavenger hunt list and each child’s books to see what they found.
• No running.

3. To familiarize them with the reading materials in the home, ask the children to tour the home and report back what rooms contain books, magazines, or newspapers.

4. Once all of the children have reported back, begin the scavenger hunt using a clue from the list below. Some of these clues may be more appropriate for certain age groups. You may use the list in its entirety or select the most appropriate clues for your children. In order to customize the scavenger hunt for your book selection, you will need to fill in the blanks on some of the clues.

• Find a how-to book about __________________ (examples: gardening or landscaping, origami, woodworking, knitting or crochet, etc.)
• Find a book by the author ___________________
• Find a children’s book about __________________. Bonus: Find an adult book on the same subject.
• Find a book by an author whose first name starts with the letter L.
• Find a book with pictures on every page.
• Find a book with no pictures or drawings.
• Find a book that was written before 1970.
• Find a hard-cover book with a dust jacket.
• Find a book with more than 400 pages.
• Find a book with fewer than 25 pages.
• Find a book that starts with "Once upon a time."
• Find a book that has an index.
• Find a book that you want to read this summer.
• Find a book that was translated from another language.
• Find a book that has more than one author.
• Find a book that has a character named Tom
• Find a dictionary, thesaurus, or encyclopedia.
• Find a book that you would like read out loud to you today.
• Find a book about animals.
• Find a book that has a word you’ve never heard of it in it. Bonus: look up that word in the dictionary.
• Find a non-fiction book.
• Find a bibliography.

5. At the end of the allotted time, call the children back to you and go over the books they found for each clue. Were there any clues for which they couldn’t find books? Who brought back the most books?

6. Ask each child to report on the interviews. Were there any books that more than one person listed as a favorite or a recommendation?

7. Have each child make a list of books he or she would like to read this summer based on the information from the interviews. Then have them look through the pile of books they found during the scavenger hunt and add anything they would like to read to the list.

8. Post the lists on the refrigerator or in the children’s rooms. When they finish a book from the list, have them check it off the list and celebrate with a picnic, a new book, a trip to the local library, or some other reward.

Prepared by Education Strategies for the
National Institute on Media and the Family