books for armchair travelers

Our bambini have a growing collection of postcards they've received from their aunt and uncle's travels abroad.  It's been fun to look up the locales on the map and see pictures from their trips.  From the British Isles to the land of Ephesus where the Blessed Virgin Mary lived her final days, it's safe to say they've traveled "hither and yon."

We haven't traveled like that, but some of our favorite children's books (mine, anyway) have been about places far away:

Adele and Simon (by Barbara McClintock) live in early twentieth century Paris.   Every day Adele collects her little brother Simon from what is probably similar to preschool here, and they walk home together by way of the park, art museum, and patisserie (among other stops).  Simon loses his belongings along the way, which elicits some big sisterly chiding from Adele, who warns of what Mama will say to Simon when he gets home.  McClintock's illustrations are beautifully rendered in a vintage style evocative of the time period in watercolor and delicate drawing.  We like to look for the lost items in the pictures.  In Adele and Simon in America, the two visit their aunt living in New York.  The three of them travel across the still-growing United States, Simon losing his things along the way but Aunt Cecile ready to recollect them.  Maps in both books show their trails, not unlike the points we're plotting on our map here at home of the places our family visit.

Many of the books in Miroslav Sasek's "This Is" series date from the 1960s and 70s, and thus aren't necessarily up-to-the minute accurate (though the recently-published editions have footnotes updating where necessary).  That doesn't matter one bit to me, though, as I am not looking for travel tips here.  What they may lack in guide book accuracy they make up for in the style and fun factors.  Our library only has This Is London, Paris, Rome, Venice, Hong Kong, Texas, and Edinburgh (from whence my paternal grandfather emigrated when he was seven years old), but there are at least that many more and then some, including Ireland, Israel, Greece, New York, San Francisco, and Australia.  Maybe someday...

We also like Ludwig Bemelman's Madeline books, especially Madeline in London, Madeline and The Bad Hat, and Madeline and The Cats of Rome.

From the comfort of our siesta nest we can travel the world with these books and others like them.  Bonjour!