Ask the Experts
Expert: Grace Shanahan

During the month of May, Grace Shanahan answered your questions about motivating kids to read during the summer months.

Read her response to question 4 below.

Question 4:
Can you suggest any books that would be good for my kids, ages 8 and 12, as we travel this summer? We’re going on a two-week trip from our home in Massachusetts to the Rocky Mountains in Colorado. How can I find books that relate to all of the stops that we’ll make on our trip?

Reply:
Your trip sounds like so much fun, and there are lots of ways to tie reading in to your adventure.  First of all go out and buy a good road map, so the children can see where you are heading and how much progress you make each day.  You can get very sophisticated about map reading, too.  Look for the legend and then figure out where the next rest stop or picnic table is located.  Believe me — it's all there in print fine enough for 8 and 12 year olds to read.

Another suggestion — be sure to have a copy of Jane and Michael Stern’s Eat Your Way Across the U.S.A. available.  You can have the kids figure out where to have dinner and discuss the options as you drive along.

Lastly, you can look for Scholastic’s “Dear America” series aimed at girls, and “My Name is America” aimed at boys.  Both of these series are guaranteed painless ways to learn about American history, and you will probably be able to match the locations of some of the books with some of the places you will be travelling through.

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