Armchair Travel

Curiosity about the world makes better citizens of us all. The price of a book, or trip to the library, is a first class ticket to stories that bring children as close as they can get to actually growing up in Brazil, China, Cambodia, Nigeria, Mexico, South Africa, Eastern Europe, or Western Asia. From fairy tales to autobiography and from legends to history the books recommended below offer children a tour of countries real and imagined.

Traveling Man: The Journey of Ibn Batutta 1325-1354
Ages: 4 - 8 yrs.
By: James Rutherford
Houghton Mifflin, $16.00 (Hardcover)

How better to involve your child in geography, history, and the art of picture books than through the pages of a masterfully-told story about one of the world’s most famous travelers? Ibn Batutta’s journey represents one of the first travel diaries we have; author/artist Rutherford takes young readers along on this trip through space and time.

The Travels of Benjamin of Tudela: Through Three Continents in the Twelfth Century
Ages: 4 - 8 yrs.
By: Uri Shulevitz.
Farrar Straus and Giroux, $17.00 (Hardcover)

Less well known but equally impressive as a world traveler is Benjamin of Tudela, who hit the road a century before Ibn Batutta. Here, Shulevitz displays the wonders of the 12th century world through story and art. The book is full of tales and anecdotes and information, conveying excitement as well as education to its young readers.

Calavera Abecedario: A Day of the Dead Alphabet
Ages: 4 - 8 yrs.
By: Jeanette Winter
Harcourt, $16.00 (Hardcover)

This colorful book stars a lot of calaveras, or skeletons. Or rather, it stars the family that makes the skeletons for the fiesta el Dia de los Muertos in Mexico (“el Dia de los Muertos” is what Americans call Halloween). The design is outstanding; crisp flat colors and black backgrounds highlight the skeletons. When the pick-up truck packed with calaveras heads for the festival, the alphabet begins - skeletons in every frame, humorously clad as mariachis or zapateros. The story is warm and informative; the illustrations and design are unusual and original.

Red Scarf Girl: A Memoir of the Cultural Revolution
Ages: 9 - 12 yrs.
By: Ji Ji Liang
Harpertrophy, $6.99 (Paperback)

Books about China’s Cultural Revolution of the late 1960s-1970s fall, generally, into two categories: memoirs by those who participated, for example as young Red Guards, or by those who were victimized, such as descendants of landlords and intellectuals. Ji Ji Lang, falls into the second category and her story of the confusion and fear of those times is conveyed through a child’s perspective. Why should your child read a book about growing up under a totalitarian society? Why not? Ignorance isn’t bliss—it’s dangerous.

I also recommend Da Chen’s China’s Son and Chun Yu’s Little Green. And, for young adult readers, Anchee Min’s Red Azalea.