Book Review: Treasure Hunt House by Becca Stadtlander and Kate Davies

★★★★

‘Treasure Hunt House’ is an activity book for children over the age of 3. It has flaps you can lift to uncover fun facts and riddles to solve! The story is about two kids who are invited to visit their Great-aunt’s house, but when they get there their Great-aunt isn’t around. Instead, she has left a treasure hunt behind that the children need to solve.

In the press release this book was described as ‘perfect for Christmas’, and that to me hit the nail on the head. I can already see this book stacked in the window of many bookshops this Christmas! Even though there’s no snow or Christmas decorations of any kind in the illustrations, it really brought me in the mood to watch Christmas movies and drink hot chocolate, despite the ongoing heatwave. Additionally, the book is recommended to anyone who likes doll’s houses, which again I can understand. Each page gives you a look into a different room of the house, which made it feel like I was looking at a vintage doll’s house, in book form.

The book has more than fifty flaps you can lift, and behind each is a fun fact. All the facts are themed around the room you’re in. For example, in the kitchen you learn about the refrigerator and the oven. However, I have to add that while I was going through the book, it did seem like an information overload. There can easily be five flaps in each room, and sometimes the text is quite long, so I can imagine 3-year-olds might lose interest after two facts in a room. When reading with children, I would advise parents to choose two flaps to lift per room, and the next time they read it they lift other ones, so the facts will be different each time!

That said, I did think each of the facts were very interesting. Often with books like this for children you end up with the same facts over and over again, leading to a shelf full of books that look different, but have the same information in it. While there were some facts like this (e.g. the telephone being invented by Alexander Graham Bell), the vast majority of them I didn’t even know about. (Can we all take a minute and discuss that the ‘Teddy’ Bear is named after Theodore Roosevelt because he didn’t want to shoot a bear while hunting?)

So, all in all, this is a beautiful book to cozy up with and read with your kids, and to learn some new things together. Especially if you save some of the facts for other reading sessions, it can be a different experience every time you read it!

I would like to thank Lincoln Children's Books and Quarto Kids for sending me a review copy.