Blog
Join us and #PlayTestShare!
by Melissa
Kids / March 02, 2018
Spring Break is just around the corner and you can count on the creative teams at Chronicle Books, Princeton Architectural Press and Laurence King to provide you and your children with fun games and activities especially for rainy days and road trips!
We sent nine of our new spring favourites to a team of bloggers across the country to play, test, and share their feedback with their avid readers. Visit their websites between March 5th and March 12th to enter to win an item of your choice from the list presented below. Participating bloggers include Quillable.ca, A Net in Time, Working Mommy Journal, My Little House of Treasures, British Columbia Mom, Discovering Parenthood, Yoyomama, MBA Mama Musings, Fab Book Reviews, Pausitive Living, Frugal Mom Eh! and Glimpse Reviews. Don’t forget to join and tag your favourites with #PlayTestShare!
A hilarious herd of llamas star in this laugh-out-loud twist on the game of dominoes. From Llama-nardo da Vinci to Super Llama (it's a bird, it's a plane, it's . . . a llama?), kids, families, and llama enthusiasts will have a blast matching heads to tails to complete the chain and win! It's a goofy gift, a boredom-busting game, and a great way to develop matching and fine motor skills, all in one appealing and colorful package.
Pass the Parcel: A Party Game
Everyone wins in this modern take on a classic British party game! Players take turns unwrapping the parcel to uncover cheeky dares that will soon have the whole group beaming. Under the last layer, there's an envelope containing a special surprise!
Draw Like An Artist: Pop Art
A collection of eighteen fun and colorful activities for aspiring Warhols, Hockneys, and Lichtensteins ages ten and up, or anyone who enjoys working with color, pattern, and pop-culture imagery, and gaining a better understanding of the 20th century's most popular art movement. Sixteen perforated pages provide plenty of raw material for collage, drawing backgrounds, and inspiration.
The Mystery Mansion
Reviving the Victorian craze for 'myrioramas', the 20 picture cards can be placed in any order to create seamless scenes. Almost infinite combinations of cards provide endless storyscaping possibilities. Find sinister suits of armour and the aftermaths of strange accidents, butlers with a grudge and glamorous couples where revenge is never far from the surface. With many games to play and millions of stories to tell, each turn of the card is a new adventure. Where will the story take you?
Crocodile and Friends Animal Memory Game
Fossil, a good-natured crocodile who just wants some peace and quiet, quickly won the hearts of children everywhere in the delightful picture book The Quiet Crocodile. Now Fossil and his friends are back, ready to play, in this fun memory game. The fifty-two cards feature twenty-six charming illustrations of Fossil and his many friends, nested in a handsome keepsake box. An added bonus is a folded poster showing all of the animal friends together, from Fippo the Hippo and Ryan the Lion to Pat the Cat.
In the Ocean: My Nature Sticker Activity Book
The world's oceans are home to many different species and plants, from tiny organisms like plankton to the world's largest animal, the blue whale. Deep down in the seas' depth, you will even find some monstrous-looking creatures that seem to have come straight out of a fairy tale. Vivid digital illustrations help introduce a variety of aquatic creatures in this addition to the My Nature Sticker Activity Book series.
After Dinner Amusements: Which Would You Choose?
With 50 hilarious and thought-provoking questions asking players to choose between two equally good, unpleasant, or absurd scenarios, this revealing party game leads to interesting conversations and good fun for all ages!
Alpha Shapes
This modern twist on alphabet blocks offers a new way to see the beauty of letterforms. Adults and children alike can build letters and words out of the 39 colorful wooden pieces, spelling out names or creating personalized messages for display.
Bob the Artist: Dominoes
Bob the Artist, first introduced in the quirky Bob the Artist picture book, loves to paint with brightly colored splashes, but he has got into a bit of a mess. Help Bob clear up his paints by matching the colors and numbers in this fun game of dominoes. A wonderful concept game for toddlers!