Top That! Publishing have a great selection of books for children and sent over a couple of Halloween activity books for Mr Z (5) and Mr T (3) to try out in the run up to Halloween.
Mr Z tried the 3D Dot-to-Dot Spooky Adventure
And Mr T tried Monster Mansion – A sticker story activity book.
Both boys enjoyed their books and I found them great for keeping them busy after school and nursery.
The 3D dot to dot book is a story book with the dot to dot activities incorporated on every page as the story progresses. It tells the tale of Max and Molly going on a spooky funfair ride and having an exciting adventure where they end up rescuing a princess!
Mr Z loves numbers so dot to dots are one of his favourite activities, and he completed the whole book in one afternoon! He will still be able to go back and colour the pictures and read the story again though so the book is not finished yet.
There is quite a variety in the dot to dot pictures, from horses, to witches, to fairies, to ghosts and skeletons – so although they all maintain the spooky theme we did not find that the book gets repetitive.
At the back of the book is a sheet which you can press out to make your 3D glasses, to then look at the dot to dots and they seem to pop out from the page a little more. It is recommended to use thick black pen to make this effect show up more, so I made sure that Mr Z did use the correct pen so as not to miss out on that!
There are more titles in the 3D dot to dot series, on different themes. I would definitely think of buying these for Mr Z in future as he has really enjoyed it, and I do like to see the children busy with a good activity book!
Mr T’s book, Monster Mansion, also has a story with activities mixed in. This story is actually more advanced so will be more suited to Mr Z to read. It is all about a young girl called Emily who accidently wanders into a Monster mansion where all the scary creatures are planning a party!
Mr T really loved the sticker play scene included in this book. At the back of the book, you can fold out a section to make a long play area suitable for sticking and resticking the stickers. There are plenty provided as there are 4 full pages worth of stickers, including ghosts, bats, furniture and more. Mr T particularly liked the door way stickers! He also enjoyed the colouring page and having a go at the maze activity.
Some of the activities in the book are more suited to Mr Z at age 5, like word searches, jokes and quizzes so Mr T did save those pages for him.
Both books are great and it’s good that there is plenty of variety in them so children will definitely find some activities in there that they enjoy. These books would be ideal to keep kids entertained over half term especially with Halloween falling right in the middle of half term.
I love to see them both sitting together, each busy doing their own work quietly and happily! We will be doing a lot of this kind of thing over half term, as Mr T is going into hospital to have his grommets put in tomorrow and will need to rest at home for 2 weeks afterwards, so we won’t be having a lot of trips out planned. I do find these kind of books ideal for those kind of weeks, and once they get absorbed into the activities its great how long it will keep them occupied for!
Anna Marikar, mum of four and seasoned blogger, has spent over a decade sharing her parenting journey and passion for kid-friendly crafts and free printables.
Her easy-to-follow craft ideas and practical parenting advice have transformed In The Playroom into a cherished resource for parents.
They look brilliant! What great books! They both look very ‘Scooby Doo’ 😀
You’re lucky he’s getting gromits – I hope they do the job 🙂
thanks – I hope they do too!
They look great. I’ve not tried E on a dot to dot yet but bet he would love one and you can never go wrong with a sticker book!
the 3d dot to dot looks great!
I bought this for my youngest son! He loves it too!
Great to keep them entertained,I bought it too!