We have been so fortunate over the past year to have been introduced to so many great authors and books. What better time than International Book Day to share the with you all in one place? We’ve read over 25 books that have inspired our creativity and we’ve expanded upon them with crafts, activities and recipes. You can find all of our book reviews and book-related projects on our Books and Book Activities page. This post contains affiliate links for your convenience.
Books that have inspired some food fun!
- Where Are The Dinos? saw us making some Dino Cookies.
- Pie-Rits had the whole family involved in recreating a scene from the book using bakery food.
- Mary Had a Sleepy Sheep inspired a Shepherd’s Stew with Sleepy sheep Dumplings.
- Handa’s Surprise enticed my children to try new foods.
Books that have inspired crafting:
- Aliens in Underpants Save The World saw us making spaceships and aliens.
- Mary Had a Sleepy Sheep had us making handprint art.
- Where Are The Dinos? had us making Dinosaurs out of paper plates.
- The Garden Classroom has inspired lots of ideas for us, many that we haven’t posted about.
- Humpfree The Humpless Camel inspired lots of Camel crating fun!
Books that have inspired us to create scenes from their pages:
- Pie-Rits had the whole family involved in making a scene using bakery foods!
- Manner-Man had us making our own Manner-Woman costume.
- Aliens in Underpants Save The World practiced our hand-eye coordination so we could save the world!
- The Gingerbread Man saw us doing lots of activities.
Books about Culture:
- We’re Roaming The Rainforest had us learning about the Matis.
- Bosley Builds a Tree House had us practising our Japanese (it’s also available in several other languages!).
Books for Learning About Life:
- What is a Family?
- Fox Talk taught us how communication is learned.
- Benjamin and the Super Spectacles had us making our own optician’s office and learning about the Optometrist.
- I am an Optician helped us learn about a first trip to the Eye Doctor.
- Today I Feel Silly, My Many Coloured Days and The Big Book of Pick and Draw help children learn about emotions.
- Manner-Man taught us about good manners and bullying.
Books for Christmas:
- Santa’s Birthday Gift.
- Christmas Owl.
- Christmas Crafts based on Christmas books.
- Tumbleweed Christmas.
Books with Games:
- The Big Book of Pick and Draw
- Away We Go! A Shape and Seek Book
- Aliens in Underpants Save The World had us making our own matching game.
- Where Are the Dinos? saw Tristan digging for dinos and counting them.
- The ABCs of Australian Animals gets kids moving with Yoga.
Fun books about Colour:
Wow! We’ve had a LOT of book-inspired fun over the past year! And there will be more coming this year as well. What is your favourite book, and have you ever had fun with a book outside of the pages?
Renee @ Mother Daughter Book Reviews says
A few of these are definitely familiar! lol Great idea for a post. Your kids have the sweetest smiles – definitely puts a smile on my face! Thanks for joining us in the Kid Lit Blog Hop. Pinning!!
Crystal McClean says
I’m glad the kids can create a smile 4000 miles away 😉 I thought you’d recognize a few of the titles…you started me off with book reviews, and we love them! rock on!
Tina at Mommynificent says
Love this great round-up of your super-helpful posts! I’ve pinned it! Thanks for sharing this at Booknificent Thursday! Looking forward to seeing you again this week!
Tina
Crystal McClean says
Thanks so much, Tina 😉 I’ve always loved books, and I’m having so much fun discovering new ones with my children!
Reshama says
Crystal that is such an awesome list! We have many favs. But the one that we “used” most outsides of reading were the Elephant and Piggie books.. we did comic strips and bubble callouts for a Loooooong time! :))
Thanks for joining us on our Kidlit BlogHop!
-Reshama @ Stackingbooks
Crystal McClean says
I haven’t heard of the Elephant and Piggie books, but they sure sound like a lot of fun-my son is still fascinated with speech bubbles 😉 I’ll keep an eye out for them.
TheBargainBabe says
I have not heard of a lot of those. Will have to add them to our library list, thanks for sharing!
Crystal McClean says
Many of the books have only been released over the past year, and some are only available on Kindle, but they’re all great reads!
Kriss MacDonald says
I love it when books inspire my kids to be creative. ~kidlitbloghop
Crystal McClean says
It’s great to see, isn’t it!
Julie Grasso says
Fabulous list, which reminds me, I still have to get My Yellow Umbrella, been on my to be purchased for too long. Thanks so much for joining us on the Kid Lit Blog Hop
Crystal McClean says
Thank you, Julie 🙂 W’re still enjoying My Yellow Umbrella, and it would be perfect for a rainbow theme!
Crystal McClean says
Thank you, Julie 🙂 We’re still enjoying My Yellow Umbrella, and it would be perfect for a rainbow theme!
Catherine says
This is a great post, thanks for sharing all your ideas 🙂
Hopping over from the kid lit blog hop.
Crystal McClean says
Thanks for stopping by, Catherine! It was a fun post to put together, I didn’t realise we’d done so many book ideas!
Jennifer at WriteKidsBooks says
Always fun to see kids interacting with books in such terrific ways. You can practically see the ideas flying off the pages and into their minds for life! On a personal level, as a former homeschooler, this makes me quite nostalgic. Stopping by from the kids lit hop – happy to have visited! 🙂
Crystal McClean says
It’s great to have you stop by Jennifer! The ideas kids come up with are endless, you can see the wheels turning and the smoke rising from their brains 😉 I hope it continues for a long time, yet…then again- I haven’t stopped!
Tanya M @ Mom's Small Victories says
What a fun way to bring books to life. Thanks for sharing.
Crystal McClean says
It makes books much more interesting and gets the kids thinking about new things.
Leyna Odell says
Thanks for the great ideas! I will definitely be checking out these books and doing some of these activities. My 3 and 5 year olds would love it!
Crystal McClean says
Please have fun with them, we certainly did!