On a Starry Night

This is a wonderful book of 52 ideas for kids to have fun (mostly outside) at night. It's broken down into chapters -- Outside after dark, inside after dark, games after dark, nature after dark, creativity after dark, and learning after dark. A great deal of the activities are nature-based and/or science-based, which I love. There are colorful photos of kids doing many of the activities, and step-by-step directions that emphasize safety. Most of the activities are not complicated or expensive, though it does start with one that can be costly (an outdoor movie using a projector).

Examples of the activities -- make a campfire, go for a moonlit hike, make a glow-in-the-dark bath (you need to buy an assortment of vitamins for this), have a rave, make your clothes glow in the dark, dance the limbo under a stick strung with fairy lights, smell outdoor flowers, listen to nature at night, go bat spotting, play Ghost in the Graveyard, make ice lanterns, make tin can lanterns, make teacup candles, use flashlights and Morse code to communicate, make sparks with flint and carbon steel and spot the international space station, among others.

Many of the ideas are quite simple and may seem a bit like filler. Some are on the opposite end and may seem ambitiously complicated or hard to source, like a light up magnet craft where kids assemble them themselves or the GITD bath with quite a long list of vitamins you need to buy. That said, there are lots of fun ideas and it's so well illustrated with a wonderfully fun tone.

I read a temporary digital ARC of this book for the purpose of review.

On a Starry night by Kaite Hodges is an amazing book that shares 52 awesome ideas and activities for children. I can remember when I was little getting to stay outside and play in the dark. Some of my best memories are from those adventures. This book will help parents give their children those fun memories of a lifetime! I recommend this book to anyone looking to have fun with their children.

This book is full of fun ideas. I can’t wait to try one of these. It has hours of fun for adults and children alike. I really liked the haunted house, glowing food and rainbow fire ideas. And I’m already planning the glow in the dark tabletop games. Such a fun book I can’t wait to buy a copy. I received this book from the publisher and NetGalley for an honest review.

A delightful book filled with a ton of fun nighttime ideas for both kids and adults alike! Each activity has easy to follow instructions. I am particularly excited to make rainbow fire pinecones and ice lanterns and learn Morse Code with my 8 yo daughter.

This is a pretty interesting book. I throw big summer parties, and I can hardly wait to try out some of these ideas. There were lots of photos of happy, smiling children in this book, who really looked like they were enjoying the activities, of which most seemed to be more geared to younger children. They are not things that you can really just send the kids out to do themselves, but more of guided and supervised activities (which in reality should be ALL activities with children in unusual circumstances). Most of them look like fun. I particularly liked the hiking activities, including maybe an after dark trail hike. The importance of safety was stressed with each activity. This would make a nice book to read, and do some of these activities, and then pass on to someone new, to use with their children. It never hurts to spread good ideas.

Great!! So happy with this book. Full of fun and creative ideas to keep the kids (and adults) occupied. A lot of these activities I never would have thought of doing and I'll definitely be putting this book to use. I like the layout and format, it's very easy to follow, I like the bright colours, the photos and the amount of different ideas. As it mentions in the description, this is a book targeted at families, with adults (or older kids) being the target reader. Most of these need adult help and/or supervision. Recommend!