Crate Expectations brings young bookworms to fun literary adventures monthly, and for February 2022, they took the kids INTO THE WILD! The box included age-appropriate books, exciting activities, plus the perfect accompaniments to wander the wilderness courageously.
The trip is dangerous and full of peril, and Swift encounters fire, hunger, hunters, and highways as he wanders. Will Swift find the courage to survive? Will he ever find a place to call home?
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The featured book for this month is A Wolf Called Wander by Rosanne Parry ($10.14)! It’s a novel that revolves around a young wolf named Swift, who got separated from his pack when a rival pack attacked. Full of adventures and inspired by a true story, this tale talks about survival in the natural world, the circle of life, and family. There are black and white illustrations on some of the pages, which my kids loved looking at. The captivating story of overcoming challenges along the way while finding a place to call home appeals not only to middle-grade readers but even to adults.
The book was accompanied by a library checkout card, on which children can rate or review the book they’ve read. It came in an envelope, and you can stick it on the book’s endpaper.
Still in line with the Into The Wild theme, the box includes Wolf Pack Stickers. It features a wolf pack with a cute little cub and a wolf howling at the moon. These stickers are ideal for paper crafting activities! For a sweet treat while reading the book, my kids also received Chocolate River Rocks. These chocolate candies are colorful and they indeed look like river rocks because of their irregular shape. There’s real milk chocolate inside, covered by a thin chocolate candy shell that gives it a bit of a crunch. My kids were wild over these!
After reading, kids can play this Wildlife of North America Card Game, an educational trivia-based card game for kids ages 7+. There are 30 cards with interesting facts to learn and pictures of real animals, plus a three-numbered die that adds excitement to learning!
The box also includes an adventure guide! Inside, you’ll find a Q&A interview with the featured author Rosanne Parry, discussion questions, book recommendations to read next, the Bookaneer Log, a recipe for Animal Track Cookies, and more to explore! As usual, there’s one STEM activity to work on and enjoy. This time, it’s The Nose Knows, and it’s an experiment to test kids’ sense of smell compared to a wolf. It’s pretty simple to execute, and the supplies needed can easily be found at home, like measuring tape, pencil or pen, and scented liquids.
With Crate Expectations, kids can go on a fun journey through books! This month’s INTO THE WILD box taught my kids about survival and family. They couldn’t put the book down and kept turning the pages. There’s also a wolf pack sticker sheet to remind them of the story even long after they’ve read it. Another thing they enjoyed is the card game because it taught them more about wildlife. They even had the opportunity to explore a wolf’s senses with a scent-sational STEM activity. It’s another well-curated themed box that delivered a lot of fun to my young bookworms!
All the items came in a box nestled with white squiggles. There is also a card that lists everything in it. Look here:
Crate Expectations is a monthly kids’ book subscription box that sends a quality book paired with a one-of-a-kind Adventure Guide and toys or games. Plans start at $32.99 each month, plus shipping and tax, and they also offer 3-month and 6-month subscriptions. Each box contains their book club pick of the month, 2-4 specially curated toys or games, a book-related STEM activity, and supplies, an exclusive author interview, a book-inspired recipe and menu ideas, book club discussion questions, and recommendations for further reading. The box is suited for 8-12-year-old kids and a favorite subscription box for tweens and pre-teens!
The Crate Expectations middle-grade readers box made our 2022 readers’ choice list of best book subscription boxes for kids!
What do you think of the Crate Expectations box?
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