Matching Children's Books to Holiday Destinations

“I’m sure they’re really, really interesting, but please don’t point out any more rocks,” she said, rolled her eyes, turned up the volume on her iPod and buried her head back in a book. And with that, my attempts to further inspire Teya with the beauty and grandeur of the Arizona desert ground to a halt.

In her defence, she has been a willing student throughout this journey; getting up close and personal with desert dwelling plants, going on walking tours and asking tour guides probing questions, as well as dutifully reading museum exhibit information from one end of the continent to the other. And yet, seeing the way she has approached the holiday has brought home the gap between how parents and kids view holidays.

For adults, getting inspired about a holiday is simple. We choose the places we visit because there is already a point of connection. We’ve read about them, seen photographs, documentaries or movies. There’s something about the destination that makes us want to give up our time and money. For kids, however, the reality is that they’re simply going where Mum and Dad want to go. It’s one thing to find activities to keep them entertained, it’s another thing to get them to really connect to the places they’re visiting.

One of the things we’ve discovered is how easy it is to overlook the simple act of explaining why we are visiting a certain place. As parents we often make plans, and do research in isolation, presenting the destination as a fait accompli, without really realising we’re doing so. The other simple, yet significant discovery we made was the power of targeted fiction; kids books of the hook-them-in-make-them-live-the-experience variety.

This was really brought home in New Mexico when I discovered the book The Green Glass Sea about a girl whose father worked on the Manhattan Project. A beautifully written novel, this story all of a sudden put a visit to Los Alamos into a nine year old context. Travelling through the southern US we felt duty bound to purchase copies of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn which were a great point of reference for talking about slavery. Two fabulous books about the experience of Japanese American children during World War II – Weedflower and Bat 6 - also provided an accessible way to understand a complex period in American history.

There is nothing new about associating fiction with learning, schools do it all the time, however, it is a highly undervalued approach when it comes to holiday planning.

There are a number of great sources for finding appropriate reading. The Newberry Medal booklist includes a wonderful collection of books about the US. Sites like Flashlight Worthy Book Recommendations also have good targeted reading lists. If you’re interested in sourcing books on a particular region let me know and I’ll send you links to what I have.