Finding that "Pot O'Gold": A neat "bookish" scavenger hunt

Gold. Such a precious metal that everyone wants to have, especially leprechauns! When we think about the month of March, the first thing that comes to mind is the notorious Saint Patrick's Day festivities. It is the only day when non-Irish folk are honorary Irish lads and lassies. You may be attending a parade, having corned beef & cabbage, looking at a local river being turned green, or if you have kids, you are probably making a leprechaun trap. Oh, and if you are 21 years of age or older, you may even partake in bar festivities and drinking a Guinness beer, shot of Jameson, or spiking your coffee with Bailey's Irish Cream liquor.

So, how do books and Saint Patrick's Day go together? Well, since leprechauns are notorious for searching for the end of the rainbow to get the gold, why not take this concept and apply it to literature? After all, and this is my opinion, but books are gold! They provide the ultimate, and most precious gift out there --- the gift of knowledge and imagination. This is worth its' weight in gold. With this in mind, let me throw this fun activity out there that can be done with adults and/or kids. It is called The Bookish Pot of Gold Scavenger Hunt. Say what!?! Yup, you do a scavenger hunt with books. This can be adapted or changed to suit depending on the participants.

The hardest part of this scavenger hunt is creating the clues and which books you want to include into this hunt. These clues describe where you hid the books. You can even take this one step further, each team have different books to find, and when the teams find a book then they need to find the quote you decided upon within the books. Then the team needs ti write it down and once everyone finishes (first team to find all the books win this part) they then get a second set of clues, but they are not finished clues because the quotes are added to the second set of clues. Then the other teams need to figure out the names of the books of the other teams (teams will be paired up, example Team A will need to figure out the books on Team B's list and vice versa) based on the second set of clues that describe the book itself along with the selected quote. Whichever team finishes this part first, wins this part. If the same team wins both parts to this activity, then awesome!

This could be done at a book club meeting, in school, party activity, or at any Saint Patrick's Day event. If you want to make this for adults (21 years of age or older), you can make a shot of an alcoholic drink that goes along with the books they find. You can make this scavenger hunt anything you want, you can simply describe the books plot with the quote as the clue. Or just describe where to find the book where you hid the books. You can describe the cover only. Many options and lots of fun by all!

Regardless how you do this scavenger hunt, just keep in mind, keep it fun! Make it an experience where they want to never stop. Happy reading my fellow book lovers, and have a fabulous Saint Patrick's Day!