Treasure Hunt Books are leveled elementary readers that enable children to “go on a treasure hunt” within a book. In a traditional treasure hunt, children read and solve a clue, then use the clue’s answer to find the next clue in their physical environment, e.g., in their home. Hence, if the answer to the first clue is “refrigerator,” children go to their refrigerator to find the second clue in the hunt.
Reading a Treasure Hunt Book is like going on a traditional treasure hunt—complete with reading, solving and finding clues—except that all the clues and answers are found in the book. The pages are not read in numerical order; instead, each clue’s answer determines the next page to read. Clue answers are displayed one per page, so students find the page that has a picture of their answer and thereby find the next clue.
The reader’s process is:
(1) Read the first clue and figure out its answer.
(2) Find the page with a picture of that answer on it.
(3) Write down the answer on an Answer Sheet.
Then repeat the three steps for the next clue (located on the page just found), and so on. When all the clues have been solved correctly, the Answer Sheet will be full and the reader “wins.”