For March’s Kids Travel Books Reading Challenge I’m focusing on the United States.
Before we get into some recommendations, a little story:
I moved to North Carolina a few days before Christmas in 2014. Before that I spent, maybe, a total of 6 days in this state.
I don’t know a lot about North Carolina.
We have a holiday tradition to buy a Christmas-related book for our kids for Christmas. When I went to Target on December 23, 2014, I found our book. Santa Claus is Coming to North Carolina.
I thought it would be the perfect introduction of our new home for our kids. As Santa flies over NC’s famous sites, we could almost consider it a check-list of things we might want to do while we live here. So cool.
Holiday travel books for kids
Now that I’ve been in the U.S. more than a year I’ve noticed something.
When I was in Florida, I saw a special Florida book.
When I was in South Carolina, there was a special South Carolina book.
One in Georia.
In Tennessee.
Before Valentine’s Day, my local Target sold a tour of North Carolina via loved sites. There’s a bunny book available right now.
My Santa is Coming to North Carolina book isn’t special for North Carolina. There’s one for every state and many cities across this country.*
*I have not actually checked if there is one for EVERY state, but they are available for quite a few states, some cities, and even some countries.
What do I think of these books?
I haven’t bought each of these books. I haven’t even looked at a sample for each of the different holidays. But, they have a common theme. Typically, a holiday icon flies over the state admiring the places that make it unique.
If you want to familiarize your kids with the sites in your home state, your favorite state, or anything in between – this is a great way to do it. While not filled with in-depth facts or analysis of local tradition and culture, they do give a great overview of some of the state’s most popular features. Find out what places seem to interest your child. If possible, visit those places. If not, give them other books and materials so they can learn more.
Holidays are a time families travel to other states. A holiday-themed book about a place you visited or plan to visit will have extra significance. Use it as a journal – let kids write in the white space about their thoughts for what they saw.
If the goal is to get kids excited about the world around them, I think they do a great job.
Holiday-themed books for U.S. Travel – Four Series to look for
Here is a sample of some of the series available on Amazon. Click on the link to find your state. Let me know what you think in the comments. Or tweet it to your friends below:
There's a series of books for V-day, Easter, Halloween, & Christmas for each US state. #kidlit Click To Tweet
Check back in the upcoming weeks as we look at more books about the U.S., a book for every state, a book review, and an interview with one of the kids travel book authors!
This is a really cute series, I love that you’re using the books as travel guides. Welcome to NC. My family has lived here for over 20 years now and it’s such a beautiful and fun place to live.
Thank you! So far I’m a big fan of NC!
What a great idea! Thanks for sharing. With a possible move ahead, this is definitely something I am going to tuck in my back pocket.