Given that my son just finished learning about the seven continents at school, I was happy to share the book Amy’s Travels with him. This children’s book by Kathryn Starke is a cool blend of geography and culture that promotes all the things we love to encourage as multilingual families.

The book takes us around the world with a little girl named Amy, whose family has lived on five of the seven continents. She is from Perú and although the book is in English, she talks about Spanish being her first language and describes life in South America. I like that kids can learn about the variety of animals and weather on Earth from this book as well (canoeing over crocodiles on the Amazon River), since we sometimes forget that some elements of culture originate from the type of land we live on.

From learning how to say hello in Swahili to why living in America means experiencing four seasons, the book is a thorough and positive introduction to the overwhelming world.

Starke is a second grade teacher and took care to include social studies topics that are appropriate for 2^nd-5^th graders in Amy’s Travels, but the simple illustrations and length of the book make it great for younger readers too.

Get your own copy of Amy’s Travels through Amazon for $10.00 and learn more about author Kathryn Starke here.

The Giveaway!

We are giving away one copy of Amy’s Travels to one lucky winner. All you have to do is leave us a comment telling us why you think your kid will like this book. Then enter the Rafflecopter below.

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I’ve become a big fan of Barefoot Books for several reasons. First, I love that the variety of topics their books cover: from world cultures to monsters & magicians. Then, I love how they have a growing selection of books in Spanish and French. You might remember I wrote about their Bilingual Bear series at the beginning of the year.

Navegamos a Galápagos: una semana en el Pacífico by Laurie Krebs falls under their category of travel and adventure. As soon as I saw that the translation to Spanish was made by Yanitzia Canetti, I knew it would be flawless. Beside teaching my kids about geography, traveling and nature, I love that the book incorporates the days of the week to tell the story. Vanessa knows from lunes to jueves already, but she still doesn’t remember the order of the other three.

The illustrations by Grazia Restelli are uniquely vibrant and go perfect with the topic of the book, an exploration of the exotic animals found on the Galapagos Islands: piquero patiazul, focas peleteras, and aves fragatas. At the end of the book, there are additional notes related to the animals, the islands and Charles Darwin.

Laurie has written several other picture books in the category of travel and I’m truly looking forward to checking them out, especially the one about my home country, Perú, entitled Sube y baja por los Andes.

Laurie’s books are also available in English only in both hard cover and paperback editions. You can also experience Barefoot Books through its free digital content in the form of podcasts, digital videos and activities by going here and looking on the left hand side.

1) Where did the idea for your book come from?

My husband and I were lucky enough to travel to the Galapagos Islands. In fact, all my books are about places I have visited. I was teaching first grade at the time and wanted to share the remarkable animals who live on the islands with my students. I chose to use the days of the week as a vehicle for describing the creatures of different islands and as you know, all of my picture books are written in rhyme. It was fun to know your daughter has learned the repetitive verse. Do you know you can sing it, too?