This is Part Four of my Asian Craft and Culture Series with author Debbi Michiko Florence:
- November 2017: Asian New Year
- February 2018: Asian Drumming
- May 2018: Pink Flamingo Day
- August 2018: Picnic and Scavenger Hunt
- November 2018: Snow Statues
- February 2019: Sumo
August 2018: Picnic and Scavenger Hunt
It’s summer so let’s go outdoors. We will be celebrating by going on a nature scavenger hunt.
Why not whip up some spam sushi rolls (spam musubi) as an easy portable picnic lunch?
Recipe: Spam musubi
Activity: Printables for Nature Scavenger Hunt and Folding an Origami Doll
Book List: Scavenger Hunt Book List
Scavenger Hunt Book List
We’re Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen, illustrated by Helen Oxenbury
This classic picture book gets an interactive makeover with sliding panels to make it a sliding board book. [board book, ages 1 and up]
We’re Going on a Bear Hunt: Let’s Discover Bugs
With facts, experiments, activities, and stickers, this activity book complements the scavenger hunt at the bottom. [activity book, ages 5 and up]
Jasmine Toguchi, Super Sleuth by Debbi Michiko Florence, illustrated by Elizabet Vukovic
Jasmine wants to celebrate the Japanese holiday Girl’s Day with her best friend Linnie. Jasmine is planning a sleepover where she and Linnie can solve the mystery of her neighbor’s boxes of dress-up clothes. Things don’t go according to plan, however. Jasmine has to use her sleuthing skills to figure out why Linnie is unhappy and make amends in time for Girls’ Day. [early chapter book, ages 6 and up]
Book Scavenger by Jennifer Chambliss Bertman
Reading this book makes you wish that book scavenging really exists — it’s like geocaching but with books and with clues encrypted into all kinds of puzzles. This is a well-paced, well-crafted adventure that makes the reader feel like they, too, are exploring San Francisco. And while I personally would be hard-pressed to solve any of the puzzle clues in the book, just learning about them made me feel a little smarter. [middle grade, ages 8 and up]
The Emperor’s Riddle by Kat Zhang
I really liked this clue-solving adventure set in modern-day China. It’s a “Pirate
Treasure Map Meets Ancient Chinese Hidden Treasure” epic quest that Mia Chen and her older brother must solve in order to find their missing Aunt Ling. Time is running out as her Aunt’s nemesis, Ying, is on the trail too. [middle grade, ages 8 and up]
Recipes
I made rice using a rice cooker and teriyaki sauce from scratch. You can also use store-bought teriyaki sauce.
Teriyaki sauce:
– 1 tablespoon sugar
– 4 tablespoons soy sauce
– 2 tablespoons sake (or white wine)
– 3 slices of fresh ginger (thin slices about 1/8 inch peeled)
Bring to a boil and lower the heat to medium. Cook until thickened.
Instructions:
– Use Japanese short grain rice as it’s stickier.
– Slice the can of Spam into 1/4 inch slices. Fry the spam slices on both sides until golden. I use the entire can.
– Put the teriyaki sauce on the fried spam RICE SIDE DOWN, or it drips off and makes it messy to eat
– Put the sheet of nori under the mold and then fill with rice. It makes it easier to unmold.
– Wrap Musubi in plastic wrap if packing for a picnic or for later.
Put the nori (seaweed) shiny side up, then the musubi mold on top of the nori. Fill with rice, tamp down, and add furikake if using. Brush Spam with teriyaki sauce. Add the Spam sauce side down towards the rice, remove the mold, and roll up.
Some hints:
– the teriyaki sauce needs to be cooked down so it’s syrupy, or it will make the rice fall apart
– add rice sprinkles (furikake over the rice layer) for extra flavor
Summer Nature Scavenger Hunt
- feather (Can you guess which bird? I think mine is from a goose.)
- insect and a spider (Can you tell the difference? How many legs? How many body parts?)
- something climbing a tree (Is this symbiosis?)
- wildflowers (What are your favorites?)
- an example of decay or decomposition (Do you know the difference?)
- purple flower (Bonus points for spotting a bee near it!)
- pinecone (Did you know that pinecones hold the seeds of a pine tree?)
- a secret hiding place in a tree (What would you hide?)
- dandelion seed head (Make a wish!)
Did you know …
… that insects have three sets of legs or six legs in total? Spiders have four pairs of eight legs total. Insects have three body parts: head, thorax, and abdomen. Spiders have two main body parts (head and body).
Did you know …
that symbiosis is the interaction between two different organisms living in close physical association, typically to the advantage of both. What does the vine gain from the tree? Does the tree get anything from the vine?
Did you know … that fungi play a large role in the decomposition of plants in addition to animals and bacteria? In decay, the larvae or maggots of flies play a large role in the decomposition of other animals and bacteria. Decay speeds up decomposition.
Did you know …
that pinecones either female or male? You can grow pine trees using seed in pine cone scales that are harvested from female cones, which have two seeds beneath each scale. Female pine cones are considerably larger than their male counterparts.
Folding an Origami Doll
The Jasmine Toguchi website has an easy origami doll activity: easy origami doll activity.
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My books:
Bookshop.org / Amazon / Signed or Inscribed by Me
Barbed Wire Between Us by Mia Wenjen, illustrated by Violeta Encarnación
- ⭐ Starred review from Kirkus
- ⭐ Starred review from Publishers Weekly
- ⭐ Starred review from School Library Journal
- Kirkus: The Most Anticipated Children’s Books of Spring 2026
Free and downloadable guide:
Barbed Wire Between Us Teacher’s Guide
Bookshop.org / Amazon / Signed or Inscribed by Me
Bookshop.org / Amazon / Signed or Inscribed by Me
- California Eureka Non-Fiction Gold Award
- Junior Library Guild Gold Selection
- Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People Winner (from National Council for the Social Studies and Children’s Book Council)
The Traveling Taco:
- California Eureka Non-Fiction Silver Award
- Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People Winner (from National Council for the Social Studies and Children’s Book Council)
- Reading Rockets’ Summer Reading Guide 2025
Bookshop.org / Amazon / Signed or Inscribed by Me
Bookshop.org / Amazon / Signed or Inscribed by Me
We Sing from the Heart: How the Slants® Took Their Fight for Free Speech to the Supreme Court
- ALSC Notable Children’s Book
- 2025 Carter G. Woodson Book Award Middle Level Honoree
- Orbis Pictus Recommended Book for Outstanding Nonfiction for Children
- 2024 Julia Ward Howe Prize for Children’s Literature Winner
- California Eureka Non-Fiction Award Honor Book
- Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People Winner (from National Council for the Social Studies and Children’s Book Council)
- Bank Street Best Children’s Books of the Year 2025
- Recommended Reading for the Social Justice Literature Award 2025 (International Literacy Association)
- Pennsylvania Mountain Laurel Book Award Nominee 2026-27
- Junior Library Guild Gold Selection
Amazon / Signed or Inscribed by Me
Bookshop.org / Amazon / Barefoot Books / Signed or Inscribed by Me
Food for the Future: Sustainable Farms Around the World
- ⭐ Starred review from School Library Journal!
- Junior Library Guild Gold selection
- Massachusetts Book Award Long List
- dPICTUS 100 Outstanding Picture Books of 2023
- Chicago Library’s Best of the Best
- 2023 INDIES Book of the Year Awards Finalist
- Green Earth Book Award Long List
- Nautilus Silver Winner, Nonfiction Children’s Picture Book
- Sunshine State Young Readers Award Orange Blossom List for Nonfiction
- Imagination Soup’s 35 Best Nonfiction Books of 2023 for Kids
Bookshop.org / Amazon / Signed or Inscribed by Me
Bank Street College’s The Best Children’s Books of the Year
Amazon / Signed or Inscribed by Me
Amazon / Signed or Inscribed by Me
I don’t generally like spam, but I could see it being delicious as musubi!
Hi MaryAnne,
It marries perfectly with rice since it’s salty!
Love this, Mia!! And hooray for Jasmine Toguchi & Book Scavenger!! 🙂
Thanks so much Maria!