When we went to London a few weeks ago for the Olympics my daughter found The Gruffalo book and a stuffed animal to bring back as a souvenir for my son. They saw the puppet show of The Gruffalo story, by Julia Donaldson, at Hamleys toy shop in London.
The Gruffalo looks very silly and almost scary but my son adores it and sleeps with it every night and asks me to read the book over and over.
He giggles at the storyline where a mouse tricks several other animals not to eat him because he is friends with a (mythical) Gruffalo, but then a real Gruffalo shows up and the mouse has to trick him too. I especially like how it points out all the parts of the Gruffalo (orange eyes, black tongue, green wart on nose, purple spikey back and more) so my son can point to all those spots as we read the story.
Apparently this book is very popular, especially in the U.K. and there is even a DVD of it. You can also find it in American bookstores or online at Amazon.
---Contest Ended--- The Winner was #14, Coupon Person, for their comment about following Wonderforge on Facebook. They said they would hide "lincoln logs, duplo blocks, trios, cars, and a tinkerbell" inside the hat. Have fun playing the game! Thanks to Wonder Forge for giving it away. They'll send the game to Coupon Person.
Our family has played several of the Dr. Seuss games by Wonder Forge geared for preschool and grade school ages. We just tried “What’s in the Cat’s Hat” this month and my kids have had a blast finding things around our house to hide inside the hat.
The hat is about 12 inches tall. We hide small toys, crayons, silverwear and more inside.
When I first saw this game on the shelf at ToysRus I thought it was just like our mystery bag we used in preschool. We had a simple drawstring bag the kids would hide a secret item. Then we played twenty questions and sometimes it would take forever for the kids to guess what was inside.
What’s in the Cat’s Hat game really gets the kids more involved and prompts them to ask more helpful questions by using a deck of question cards. It has a specially designed hat, with a flap on top, to hide objects from view and other secret flaps toward the bottom used for special purposes in the game (peeking, smelling and feeling).
I really loved the combination of using the unique question cards (Does it have a face? Would it float in a bathtub?) along with the action cards (smell it, feel the hat with your elbows). This stepped the mystery bag game up to a whole new level, plus it is Dr. Seuss themed and the kids are drawn to that. Who wouldn’t want to guess what is in the Cat’s hat?
GAME GIVEAWAY:
Wonder Forge will send a copy of this game to one lucky reader. Just in time for Christmas! This would be a fun gift under the tree.
Official entry: To enter this giveaway please leave a comment below telling me what you would hide in the hat.
This giveaway runs Nov. 17 – Nov. 27. A winner will be randomly chosen at midnight MST on Nov. 27, 2011. If you do not have an email linked to your comment account, please leave your email address in your comment. Open to valid U.S. addresses only.
For extra entries, pick any of the following to do and leave a separate comment for each one below:
Follow ObSEUSSed on Google Friend Connect found in the right column.
“Cat in the Hat, I Can Do That!” game. We’ve had ours a few years and the original “Trick-a-ma-stick” was very tricky to set up and fell over easily. Wonder Forge has amazing customer service. See how they responded when they saw the negative reviews about the stick on Amazon. If you have this game and want the new-improved stick, click here to find out how to get a free replacement. They sent us a replacement and the kids easily set it up.
My son loves skipping around the trick-a-ma-stick with the Seuss toy man in his shirt. In this game they pick an action card, an item card and a how-to hold item card. Below my daughter has to crawl under the trick-a-ma-stick with the Dr. Seuss cake on her back.
Disclosure: I received a free copy of the 'What's in the Cat's Hat' game from Wonder Forge for review. All opinions and experiences are my own.
GIVEAWAY: Remember to enter the giveaway for a chance to win a copy of "What's in the Cat's Hat." (See rules above)
