Good books for kids for Europe?

[poohmomof5]

I have 5 kids aged 8-21, any recommendations on good books for them to get to learn about where we will be visiting?

We are on the 12 night Med with Venice/Croatia...

I really could use some advice, on Amazon there are soooo many different choices. It is hard to know what might be good.

Some background, my oldest is really into history and loves learning, the youngest is a little girl, loves to talk about places, doesn't love to read as much...her favorite book is the Kids guide to Disney World

[gatorfreud]

bumping since i want to know too!

[bibbidibobbidibecky]

I have two favorites for travel. Check out the M. Sasek series--check Amazon--these are kid-friendly and beautifully illustrated! Second is the Magic Treehouse series with the extra fact books. We have the Pompeii one and another that I don't remember.

[poohmomof5]

Originally Posted by bibbidibobbidibecky

I have two favorites for travel. Check out the M. Sasek series--check Amazon--these are kid-friendly and beautifully illustrated! Second is the Magic Treehouse series with the extra fact books. We have the Pompeii one and another that I don't remember.

Thanks for the ideas! The M. Sasek books look really neat. The Magic Treehouse one I already ordered with the extra fact book. Thank you!!!

[Lisa Lisa]

I ordered Rome with Kids: An Insider's Guide from Amazon, and my 9 yo DD and I both really like it. I've heard that the DK Eyewitness Travel Guides are very good for kids as they contain a lot of color photos. I have Top 10 Rome and Top 10 Venice in my Amazon shopping cart.

Thanks to the PP for recommending the Magic Treehouse books! I'm going to order the pair about Rome/Pompeii and the pair about Greece.

[kaseyC]

Originally Posted by Lisa Lisa

I ordered Rome with Kids: An Insider's Guide from Amazon, and my 9 yo DD and I both really like it. I've heard that the DK Eyewitness Travel Guides are very good for kids as they contain a lot of color photos. I have Top 19 Rome and Top 10 Venice in my Amazon shopping cart.

Thanks to the PP for recommending the Magic Treehouse books! I'm going to order the pair about Rome/Pompeii and the pair about Greece.

My girls ages 17, 11 and 9 love the Eyewitness Top 10 books. Lots of pictures, facts and maps. Lonely Planet has a series of Travel Books for kids called "Not For Parents". We have the Paris one and my 11 and 9 yr old really like it.

[poohmomof5]

Hi Lisa,

Thanks for the "Top 10" guides idea. I just looked through several of them and they look like nice quick overviews of some of the top sites for our cruise. I think I am going to get the Venice, Rome and Tuscany ones! (For me of course...)

[Docmom]

We homeschool and love Amanda Bennett unit studies ( www.unitstudy.com). She has a Passport series with the UK, France, Italy and Germany out so far. They are downloadable PDFs with imbedded links. It's a different perspective of a country than a regular travel guide will have. Also check out your local library; ours has a lot of resources both in books and videos.

[DisneyOHFan]

Another idea to give them a little visual perspective before they dive into the books is to watch some of Rick Steves videos on-line. That's what we did to spark their interest. For us at least, it helped to engage them a little more before they started reading about the locations.

[poohmomof5]

Originally Posted by Docmom

We homeschool and love Amanda Bennett unit studies ( www.unitstudy.com). She has a Passport series with the UK, France, Italy and Germany out so far. They are downloadable PDFs with imbedded links. It's a different perspective of a country than a regular travel guide will have. Also check out your local library; ours has a lot of resources both in books and videos.

Great idea, for some reason I never think of the library as a resource for travel books. I like to bring my books with me and by the time I am done with them...well, they are a little tattered.

Originally Posted by DisneyOHFan

Another idea to give them a little visual perspective before they dive into the books is to watch some of Rick Steves videos on-line. That's what we did to spark their interest. For us at least, it helped to engage them a little more before they started reading about the locations.

I always struggle with watching videos. I LOVE to be surprised by new destinations...so I don't look at too many pictures or videos. I just read.

[Candy Apple]

What are the specific names of the Magic Tree House books? We are doing the Med with Greece cruise. TIA.

[bibbidibobbidibecky]

Originally Posted by Candy Apple

What are the specific names of the Magic Tree House books? We are doing the Med with Greece cruise. TIA.

There's Hour at the Olympics then the Fact Tracker #10: Ancient Greece and the Olympics. Also Fact Tracker #14 includes Ancient Rome...it deals a lot with Pompeii, too, but we used it for Rome and Pompeii. The book that goes with this one is specifically about Pompeii, so I don't think you'd want that since you don't stop in Naples.

I just looked and there is another where they meet Leonardo Da Vinci: Monday with a Mad Genius (Magic Tree House, No. 38), but I haven't read that one and they are in Italy (looks like Florence) and a fact book about him to go with it. FYI.

[Candy Apple]

Originally Posted by bibbidibobbidibecky

There's Hour at the Olympics then the Fact Tracker #10: Ancient Greece and the Olympics. Also Fact Tracker #14 includes Ancient Rome...it deals a lot with Pompeii, too, but we used it for Rome and Pompeii. The book that goes with this one is specifically about Pompeii, so I don't think you'd want that since you don't stop in Naples.

I just looked and there is another where they meet Leonardo Da Vinci: Monday with a Mad Genius (Magic Tree House, No. 38), but I haven't read that one and they are in Italy (looks like Florence) and a fact book about him to go with it. FYI.

Thank you so much for your quick reply. I just ordered them all from my library!