Customer Reviews

Kids Europe Italy Discovery Journal

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a small publishing production, not very sophisticated in terms of formatting or reproduction, but, guess what? The kids loved it. There really isn't any other guide for children out there; I looked! This is for the kids, tells them about things they might be interested in like pasta and fast cars. There's some subtle education going on but mostly just ideas about wierd history, Italian culture and things kids like to eat. Our two children, a boy 13 and a girl 11, carried their little books everywhere and would point out things to us, the parents, that were interesting or surprising. Good little investment for your travels!

Anna Manna!

My boys used this journal both times we went to Italy. It gave us a lot of ideas and sparked some that were not in the book. They liked that they didn't have to bring the entire journal around with them; they could just take out the pages that they needed. Even my teens took some ideas, like charting gelato flavors. (Same flavor changed from place to place.) The journal made some of the lesser kid-friendly activities more enjoyable for them, therefore, more enjoyable for us. We are looking out for journals for more countries.

I travel to Italy a lot on business and I'm taking the whole family for the first time. We've been reading on the internet and other travel books in preparation, but came across this one and thought we would give it a try. It's excellent. In addition to being full of good travel advice and things to look for that are fun for kids of all ages, it is also a good "study guide" of sorts. We homeschool our children and this is the kind of book that is perfect to help teach them about a new country and culture. I highly recommend it.

This book is exactly what we were looking for. Little tidbits of cultural and historical information packaged in a light-hearted, fun manner yet not overly dumbed-down.

My kids (and I) think this book rocks. We happen to live in Italy but, even after 18 months here, we still find things in this book that surprise us. The book makes historical sites interesting and fun by pointing out things that kids would find fun and interesting. We have explored "Strange Parks" and located almost all of the license plates and cars listed as we travel around Italy. I'm always surprised as I read it to find more information that I didn't know, more things to try and places to go. We hope to go to Paris soon and I'll be ordering a copy of Pat Byrne's Paris book first.

This is a fantastic book. It provides all the answers to the questions kids may have about Italy. My husband can't keep his hands off of it either! My 9 and 10 year-olds especially appreciate the gelato flavor translation!

I picked this up at a used book sale and wasn't expecting much, but thought there might be some information to entertain my grand children on a visit to Italy. Wow. This is an absolutely fabulous journal for kids and adults alike.

The book is broken down into sections which include:

* Food and Eating
* Shopping
* Halls of the Holy (churches and religion)
* Everyday Life and Popular Culture
* Art and Architecture
* Blasts from the Past (History)
* Lay of the Land (Geography)
* Creative Cars and Road Fun
* See, Say, Do, Play
* Places to Visit
* Travel Ideas

You'll find important, can't live without information like the various types of Gelato ice cream in Italian with a pronunciation guide! If you've ever had real Italian Gelato you know why this is is can't live without information. You also will find information that helps a child adjust to a different culture. For instance the section on beverages tells you drinks are often not chilled in Italy and if you want them cold say "freddo per favore"--that is "fay doh pear fa vore eh." The food section also contains a listing of dishes that child generally likes categorized by area.

There is all sorts of helpful information in each of the chapters to help a child navigate through Italy with a minimum of fuss. Some chapters contain little quizzes or puzzles and all contain a wealth of information that can benefit even an adult. This is written for children and is very clever in its approach to imparting information in such a way that a child wants to visit a museum, see a painting, view a church, walk a path and more.

The journal is interactive in that it engages the child with questions like "what colors are buildings? Compare with colors in your city or town. Can you reproduce the colors with your colored pencils? There is also a "Cool Cars Check List" that will keep the kids busy looking for Ferrari's, Fiats, Alfa Romeos, and more.

If you are going to Italy with the kids, do yourself a favor and get this journal.

The whole family is awaiting our trip in August, and everyday we all learn a new word or something of interest that we will be seeing.

Our 7 year old loved looking through the book and finding fun activities and reading information about the sights in Rome. We all learned some neat factoids! The book offers great suggestions of ways to make the trip more interesting for kids (eg. count steps as you climb, look for obelisks). My son felt important carrying a "guide book" too :)

My 8 year old daughter absolutely loved this book for our recent trip to Tuscany and Rome. 11 year old boy showed some interest but that was fleeting. As adults, we found the information more interesting than that in the regular tour guides. Great book! Do not hesitate if child is reading age through 10 years old, I think.