Reading Scavenger Hunt (FREE Printable PDF)

Need a fun printable for World Book Day or back to school? We’ve got you covered with this free printable reading scavenger hunt!

Our printable template is perfect for using in a classroom or at home and you can colour each item as you find it, plus the scavenger hunt has some bonus questions for kids too!

Free Printable Reading Scavenger Hunt

So as a bit of background I’m a mom to two kids but also I love to read.

I know a lot of people say that (hello, you are my people) but as well as having a degree in English I also used to run a second hand book business with my husband – at one point we owned ten thousand books and trust me our home was rammed full with those.

I may not own our book business any more but I’m still really passionate about books and I love to try and encourage my kids to love books too, there’s a lot of activities for children’s books on this blog!

This scavenger hunt is designed as a fun way to get kids excited about reading, instead of the traditional clues you’ll find pictures that kids can colour as they read different books making it great for younger kids too.

It might be that they need to find a book with a certain main character like a witch or wizard, it might be a theme like friendship or maybe there’s an event in the book like a party.

There’s enough ideas and lots of choices to get you looking through any book collection.

The scavenger hunt is also designed to be as inclusive as possible so whether you’re looking at picture books together or you have independent readers starting chapter books they can all join in.

You can also print as many copies of this free printable scavenger hunt as you like so if you wanted to use it for lessons or even as part of a summer reading program then that would be fine, it would also be great to use as a world book day scavenger hunt!

Do You Have To Read All The Books?

No, in fact *gasp* if you wanted you could not even read them, you could do this as a challenge in a public or classroom library or in your book case to find books with these themes and characters.

The cute graphics make this a really easy way to keep a reading log and it’s a nice way to open a conversation about reading too – ‘what book did you read about a dog?’

Of course if you would like to try and read all of these books then go for it! Or you could just make it a challenge to see how many you can manage – no one needs the pressure of being ‘forced’ to read specific books if it’s something that’s really not their thing – reading should be fun!

Do You Have To Read All The Books At Once?

No! This would be a great challenge to do over a period of time and a fantastic way to get kids to look at books outside of their comfort zone.

I know that in our family my son (then aged 10) was set a challenge last year by his teacher to read different kinds of books like a poetry book or something set in another country and it was a really good way for him to try something new, it worked too!

With themes like pirates and food this scavenger hunt is obviously set at a younger age group but if you’re tired of reading The Gruffalo or Green Eggs and Ham for the 500th time this week then trying this could be a fun way to get you out of that rut.

Book Scavenger Hunt List

Want to know what you’ll be looking for on your reading scavenger hunt? Here’s all the items you’ll be trying to find.

Items to Colour In

• Pirates
• A Teddy
• A Vehicle
• Food
• A Witch or Wizard
• Superheroes
• A Dinosaur
• The Weather
• Friendship
• A Party or Celebration
• An Insect
• Space
• A Dog
• Sport
• Aliens
• Prince / Princess

Bonus Reads

On the scavenger hunt PDF you’ll also find a section where you can tick any bonus reads that you do. These are for:

• A Poem
• Comic Book
• Pop-up Book
• Rhyming Book
• Non-fiction Book

You’ll also be looking for a joke in a joke book that you can tell someone and to build a cosy den that you can snuggle up in to read a book.

More Printable Scavenger Hunts

We’ve shared a lot of scavenger hunt ideas with printables available for different themes throughout the year such as Earth Day and St Patricks Day.

As you can see though we’ve also got lots of free resources that are perfect for all year round and they’re great if you need a last minute activity that doesn’t require too much prep.

This indoor scavenger hunt is an excellent way to keep kids busy if you’re stuck inside so it’s great as a rainy day activity.

This outdoor scavenger hunt is perfect for your backyard or in playgrounds and was a huge hit with my kids.

Grab a clipboard and have fun exploring nature as you look for a leaf, flowers, bugs and more.

How To Get Your Printable Reading Scavenger Hunt

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