Whether your kids are physically back at school or learning virtually, activity books are an entertaining and educational resource – here are a few that we love!
Ages 5-9
More Hidden Pictures Two-Player Puzzles
By Highlights
144 Pages | Ages 6-9 | Paperback
ISBN 9781684372584 | Highlights Press
This companion to the innovative Hidden Pictures® Two-Player Puzzles book includes even MORE fun and challenging puzzles to solve. In a unique new twist on the best-selling classic Hidden Pictures® puzzle books, each puzzle duo is created to engage pairs of players while honing their concentration skills and attention to detail. This is the perfect addition to family game night, ideal for a rainy-day activity–and makes a great gift!
My Book with No Pictures
By B. J. Novak
40 Pages | Ages 5-8 | Paperback
ISBN 9780593111017 | Dial BFYR
Now YOU can create some of those amazing words. YOU can write a book that makes grown-ups have to say silly things. Just fill in the blanks with whatever unusual, nonsensical words come to mind (or use the sticker sheet with its funny options). Then ask your favorite adult to read your book to you, and laugh and laugh at YOUR book with no pictures!
The 2021 Almanac of Fun
By Highlights
304 Pages | Ages 6-9 | Paperback
ISBN 9781684379224 | Highlights Press
Get ready for 2021 with favorite Highlights puzzles and activities that celebrate traditional and wacky holidays, historical anniversaries, world events, and everything in between. Kids can puzzle their way through each month while learning lots of interesting facts, and documenting their own occasions!
The Dot: Make Your Mark Kit
By Peter H. Reynolds
Ages 5-9 | Hardcover
ISBN 9780763669782 | Candlewick
An enchanting invitation to self-expression, Peter H. Reynolds’s The Dot is the much-loved story of a reticent girl who discovers that being an artist is simply a matter of making a mark and seeing where it takes you. Now everyone’s inner artist can come out to play with the help of a hardcover edition of The Dot, enticingly packaged with The Blank Book and a set of colored pencils at the ready.
Where’s Waldo? The Boredom Buster Book: 5-Minute Challenges
By Martin Handford
220 Pages | Ages 5-9 | Hardcover
ISBN 9781536211450 | Candlewick
Flying off on vacation or taking a long car ride? Stuck inside for hours on a rainy day? Fend off boredom with this hefty compendium of searches and activities featuring everyone’s favorite wanderer and his wily friends. You’ll find mazes, matching games, connect-the-dots, coloring pages, word searches, quizzes, and more, all guaranteed to occupy sharp-eyed fans.
Ages 8-12
Amazing Ancients!: Egypt
By Gabby Vernon-Melzer
32 Pages | Ages 8-12 | Paperback
ISBN 9781524790622 | Penguin Workshop
Fourteen fabulous spreads of lively nonfiction topics like geography, games, daily life, customs and rituals, inventions and architecture, and more are matched with mazes, word searches, craft ideas, and puzzles. Read about the importance of papyrus to the Egyptian culture then learn to make your own papyrus placemat at home! Learn to decode hieroglyphs, try making a dessert fit for a queen, and make your own senet board and learn how to play the most popular Egyptian game.
Amazing Ancients!: World of the Maya
By Elaine A. Kule
32 Pages | Ages 8-12 | Paperback
ISBN 9780593093061 | Penguin Workshop
The classic Maya period from 250 AD to 900 AD was a time of tremendous cultural growth in Central America. Stretching from Mexico in the north to Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, and to Honduras in the south, the Maya established trade routes, city-states, mathematic and scientific calculations, and a hieroglyphic style of writing. In fourteen fabulous four-color spreads, Amazing Ancients! takes readers into the geography, games, daily life, customs and rituals, inventions and architecture in the World of the Maya. Through cool mazes, word searches, craft ideas, and puzzles, readers will learn how this fascinating culture lived and thrived.
Animation Studio
By Helen Piercy
32 Pages | Ages 8-12 | Hardcover
ISBN 9780763667016 | Candlewick
Do you know how to build a storyboard? Design a character? What does the action of “squash and stretch” have to do with making animation look realistic? From hand-drawn sequences to 3-D models, from lighting a set to using a variety of camera shots, Animation Studio offers expert tips to help kids transform a series of still images into an original animated movie.
Brain Games: Colossal Book of Cranium-Crushers
By Stephanie Warren Drimmer and Gareth Moore
160 Pages | Ages 8-12 | Paperback
ISBN 9781426336751 | National Geographic Children’s Books
Prepare to have your mind blown! Inside this book you’ll find mind-bending games and puzzles that are backed by the latest neuroscience discoveries and designed to fine-tune your mental muscle. Journey through elaborate mazes, solve crossword puzzles like a pro, and get your creative juices flowing with fun art challenges. And that’s not all: This write-in, full-color book also includes expert-level sudoku puzzles, storytelling games, code-cracking riddles, and much more. You’ll also get the inside scoop on the brain science at work behind the challenges.
Discovery Globe: Build-Your-Own Globe Kit
By Leon Gray
Illustrated by Sarah Edmonds
48 Pages | Ages 8-12 | Hardcover
ISBN 9780763697488 | Candlewick
For curious adventurers everywhere comes a unique guide to the amazing diversity of life on planet Earth. From the poles to the equator, from dense cities to vast wildernesses, from deep below the sea to high in the forest canopy, this illustrated globe and guide take readers on a rich and exciting tour of discovery and revelation.
Dungeons & Dragons: Big Trouble
By Matt Forbeck
128 Pages | Ages 8-12 | Hardcover
ISBN 9781536202458 | Candlewick
When evil giants attack your home in Ardeep Forest, your parents think you’re dead and they go hunting for your missing little brother. You wake up and set out after them, helped by a giant wizard who lives in a flying tower. You don’t know where they’ve gone, but you know that if you don’t find them, you’re all in big trouble. Wield your magic wisely against the giants, wizard.
Get Coding!: Learn HTML, CSS & JavaScript & Build a Website, App & Game
By Young Rewired State
208 Pages | Ages 9-12 | Paperback
ISBN 9780763692766 | Candlewick
Crack open this book and set off on several fun missions — while simultaneously learning the basics of writing code. Want to make a website from scratch? Create an app? Build a game? All the tools are here, laid out in a user-friendly format that leads kids on an imaginary quest to keep a valuable diamond safe from dangerous jewel thieves. Presented by Young Rewired State — an international collective of tech-savvy kids — in easy-to-follow, bite-size chunks, the real-life coding skills taught in this engaging, comprehensive guide may just set young readers on the path to becoming technology stars of the future.
Maps Activity Book
By Aleksandra Mizielinska and Daniel Mizielinski
72 Pages | Ages 7-10 | Paperback
ISBN 9780763677718 | Big Picture Press
Following the best-selling Maps, the Mizielinskis return with a companion activity book. Bursting with fascinating facts and puzzles from around the world, this book offers hours of entertainment to young adventurers. Informative and inspiring, the myriad activities in this book challenge the reader to discover something new and explore their imagination to draw, decorate and design on every pull-out page.
National Geographic Kids Cats and Dogs Super Sticker Activity Book
By National Geographic Kids
112 Pages | Ages 4-8 | Paperback
ISBN 9781426338113 | National Geographic Children’s Books
This bind-up of Cats and Dogs combines two super-cute, fun-filled sticker books in one! It’s chock-full of information about kids’ favorite furry friends: kittens, puppies, different breeds of cats and dogs, behaviors, pet care, and much more! With a colorful design and loaded with tons of games and activities–such as mazes, matching, drawing, and counting–kids are sure to love these pages of 2,000 stickers!
All Ages
Guess How Much I Love You Coloring Book
By Sam McBratney
Illustrated by Anita Jeram
96 Pages | All Ages | Paperback
ISBN 9780763694678 | Candlewick
Love is a colorful thing! Fans old and new, young and not so young will revel in these intricate scenes of nature featuring Little Nutbrown Hare and Big Nutbrown Hare. In ninety-six pages of beautifully rendered images and words inspired by the beloved story, the world of Guess How Much I Love You stands ready to come to life with the help of some crayons or markers, dozens of stickers, and a whole lot of love.