Amazing Kids Travel Book For Barcelona

Traveling with kids requires a fine balance.  The adults want to see museums and cathedrals, while the children want to play at the parks & swim at the hotel pool.  

Oldest Kiddo is at the age where she can assist in the vacation planning.  I am not about to give her the most recent Frommer's Barcelona and ask her to plan out an itinerary.  I sought out blogs and websites with ideas for kids.  Let me tell you a secret.  Much like all souvenir shops sell the same thing, most cities list the same things for kids: the zoo, the aquarium, and the children's' museum.  For us, those are usually reserved as a last resort.  However, the NEMO Science Museum in Amsterdam was phenomenal.  

For this trip I found an amazing book that Oldest Kiddo loved.  

Book at amazon.com

Book at amazon.co.uk

Not affiliate links

The book is broken up by area with specific tasks listed.  She had to find fountains, plaques, and different pieces of architecture.  She was engaged on all of our walks around the city.  To be honest, her excitement about the book transferred to us.  We got excited each time one of us spotted what the task asked.

Another great thing about the tasks was that everything was not easy to find.  Some items were off in the distance that we had to search via a lookout point, or  we had to look extremely close at a piece of architecture for one little design.  One item that eluded us was discovered through the window of the office at our rented apartment.  

Sometimes we had to tell her to put the book away.  

The author also has a book for Paris & Rome, so check them out if you are taking the family on a trip!

British Library - Touring Tuesday - Museum Mile

Now that the kids are in school I have the city at my feet. Aside from the casual errands, I can go anywhere (as long as I'm back in time for the dismissal bell).  I prefer the free attractions, but I'm willing to pony up a few pounds for an exceptional spot.

I recently visited The British Library up near King's Cross/St.Pancras Station.  It is part of the collection of museums knows as the Museum Mile.  Read about the other museums in the collection I've visited here.

Here are some facts:

It is the biggest library in the world.  The Library of Congress is second largest.

The really old items in British Library were originally housed at the British Museum (one of my absolute favorite museums).

The British Library is a huge vault of literature and artifacts, and it even has below ground storage.  You might be interested to know that this is a research library, and you are unable to walk the stacks and peruse the books of this library.  A majority of the public space is comprised of reading rooms for different academic disciplines.  If you have a specific research need, and the proper documentation to prove it, you can request to see specific texts to be delivered to your table.

The library receives a copy of every book published in England & Ireland.  That's over 3 million items per year.  I wonder how often they receive requests for the dime store romance books with Fabio on the cover.

For me, the highlight of my self-guided tour was seeing the center tower containing books collected by King George III from the late 1700's to early 1800's (the anniversary of his death was last week on January 29.)  The tower is highly controlled for humidity and light behind the UV glass.  The size of the books is impressive.  Many of the volumes on the shelves are well taller than 12".  I would love to get my hands on any of these books.

Aside from the books, the British Library also has a vast collection of literary artifacts.  I was able to view such impressive items as a Gutenberg Bible, the Magna Carta, the original Alice in Wonderland, lyrics to many Beatles songs in their handwriting, and much more.

Overall, I was impressed with the British Library even though I could not peruse the stacks.  I think I toured the facility in about ninety minutes.

British Library

96 Euston Road

London

NW1 2DB

Nearest Underground Stations: King's Cross/St. Pancras, Euston, and Euston Square

Admission: Free - special exhibits priced separately

Honorable Mention Books of Summer

At the end of last school year, a friend showed me a new book from our school library, Larry Gets Lost in Chicago. I was immediately smitten Larry, a dog that gets separated from his owner during a trip to Chicago.  It's not just because I'm partial to the city setting, but I'm thrilled about the content.  As Larry looks for Pete, his owner, he visits all of the important sights in Chicago.  Larry rides the El, sees Wrigley Field, the Shedd Aquarium, the Picasso sculpture, and the lakefront to name a few.

Don't worry Larry reunites with Pete in a wonderful place.

After I read this book I knew my own kids would love it.  They love it so much, they recognize the landmarks when we visit the big city.  G especially loves to reference Larry when we go past the Art Institute lions.

As I was purchasing Larry Gets Lost in Chicago, I saw that Larry gets lost in other cities, too!  Los Angeles, New York, and Seattle to name a few.  I didn't want to buy all of them so I went to the next best place, my library.

They did not have any of the Larry books in the collection.  However, the website has a tab to request books.  I listed the entire Larry series and crossed my fingers.  Not more than two weeks later I received an email from the library to say several of the Larry books were in and on hold for us!  By the end of three weeks they had bought every one of the Larry books. 

I love my library.

Now I need to write the author and have Larry & Pete go to Europe :)

Fourth (and Final) Book of the Summer

The last book of the summer falls into the young reader category.  Gregor the Overlander is written by Suzanne Collins of the Hunger Games series.  Gregor was her first book series.

Gregor is a teenage boy living in New York City with his mom, grandmother, and siblings.  His father has been gone for two years.  One day Gregor and his baby sister discover an underworld via their laundry room.  He becomes known to the underworld residents as Gregor the Overlander and is an integral part in fulfilling/solving a prophecy that was written long ago.  

His adventure involves royalty, cockroaches, spiders, rats, and bats.  I think this story is great for the late elementary/early middle school reader.  I'm excited to read the next books in the series.  For an adult, it's a quick read!

Third Book of Summer

The third book of summer is from my favorite genre and by far my favorite book of summer - Stories I Only Tell My Friends by Rob Lowe.  This autobiography tells of the Rob's life from his childhood in Ohio to present day California.

This story was a lot of fun to read because I "know" most of the people in his life.  He grew up with Charlie Sheen, Emilio Estevez, Tom Cruise, and Matt Dillon, to name a few.  He dated many famous women, some were on the cusp of fame and others came from Hollywood royalty.  He even had a relationship with a real royal.  

The heart of the story is Rob's desire to have a good life and make great movies.  He shows that the industry is not very nice and it's hard to make a good living.  Thankfully along the way he meets good people who help him conquer his demons.  I enjoyed reading about his experiences as he made The Outsiders with Francis Ford Coppola, lobbied for votes on a clean environment initiative (Proposition 65) on a bus with Jane Fonda, Whoopi Goldberg, and Michael J. Fox, worked on the Wayne's World & Tommy Boy movies, how your true family supports you when dealing with addiction, and his time on The West Wing.

I noticed that Rob had a penchant for two words - zeitgeist and auteur.  These words are outside of typical vernacular that they stood out to me each time he used them.  Here's your vocabulary lesson for the day (thanks to Miriam-Webster.com): 

zeitgeist - noun, often capitalized \ˈtsīt-ˌgīst, ˈzīt-\: the general intellectual, moral, and cultural climate of an era

auteur (refers you to auteur theory) : a view of filmmaking in which the director is considered the primary creative force in a motion picture

Remember those when you get on Teen Jeopardy some day.

Second Book of the Summer

I'm not certain how I specifically came across my second book for the summer.  I think I read some list of books that people should read and The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams.  By nature I am not a fan of the science fiction genre, but I thought I'd read outside of my box this summer.  I have mixed feelings about this book.

I'm not giving anything away with my synopsis - An alien that's ben on Earth for several years figures out the planet is about to be destroyed.  He grabs his favorite Earthling and escapes just before doom.  These two hitchhike across the galaxy and have several adventures.  They eventually meets up with two other familiar faces and continue their explorations.  

Positive - There were amusing parts.  The book starts off with the human character lying infront of a bulldozer so it does not knock his house down.  The different alien species they meet in space are quite a creative menagerie.  I read the book in a day and a half.  I could have finished it in a day, but I chose to close my eyes at the pool for a bit. 

The not so positive - The action in the book is mediocre.  They are jettisoned into space and will die if not picked up by another spacecraft.  All of a sudden they just so happen to get picked up.  Very non-dramatic stuff.  The ending was slightly abrupt.  The last few chapters had me hoping for a dramatic ending, but it just didn't happen.

Should you read it?  Meh, if you want a quick read with some amusing parts (and you checked it out from the library).  I might put the movie version at the bottom of my Netflix queue, and if it ever makes it to the top I'll watch it.

First Book of the Summer

Summer vacation brings on many things, one is the time to read for pleasure.  I do read during the school year, but my eyes typically make it only a few pages until I pass out.  The extra sleep of summer makes me more alert for books!

My first summer read was Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand.  She also wrote Seabiscut, which I have not read.  This story is about an Olympic runner that joins the military and serves during WWII.  He flies planes and eventually crashes (I'm not spoiling anything for you).  What happens after that is horrific and inspiring. 

I actually started this book back in November during our weekend in LA.  It was an interesting coincidence that I read this book during our trip.  The main character, Louis Zamperini, grew up in Torrance, California, which was not far from where we were.  On Sunday morning of that weekend we drove down toward Long Beach, and I was shocked to see an airport named Zamperini Field.  The city of Torrance renamed their airport in honor of their famous son. 

After our trip I put the book down and had hopes of returning to it during the holidays.  I bought the book for my dad and thought we could have a discussion about it.  Needless to say he finished it by Valentine's Day.

So, I didn't read the whole book during the summer since I picked up on page 150, but I'm not going to be picky.  Once I resumed reading, I could not stop.  I found myself thinking about the characters and what they experienced when I wasn't reading.

I heart books

Thankfully so does M.  Just recently she can't get enough of books, whether she reads them or I do.  When she chooses to play in her room I will often find her reading on her bed.  I am not certain how much she gets out of the chapter books she reads, but she can give me a decent synopsis of what Ramona or Junie B. are up to.  We are currently on the third Harry Potter book.  I am so surprised by what she remembers from the first two books that help understand what happens in the third book.

Love her!