When travel writer Bill Clevlen offered to send me a copy of his new children’s book titled An American Road Trip for Kids, I immediately responded with “YES, PLEASE.” We are a road trip-loving family, and I know from following the Bill on the Road website that this little picture book would probably feature some really interesting places. (It did not disappoint.)
DISCLOSURE: I was provided with a complimentary copy of this book by the author. As always, any opinions expressed are my own.
DISCLOSURE: This post contains Amazon affiliate links. If you make a purchase through any Amazon links in this post, I receive a small commission (at no additional cost to you).
An American Road Trip for Kids by Bill Clevlen
The first thing you see upon opening An American Road Trip For Kids
Parents Love This Book
An American Road Trip for Kids is a fun and educational read. As a parent, I really appreciate that.
It features a really good representation of the continental United States. (Sorry, Alaska and Hawaii.) From north to south, from east to west, and through the heartlands – it takes readers through a good sampling of all these regions. Additionally, it shows a variety of urban and natural spaces including big cities, small towns, national parks, mountains, beaches and more.
It provides great opportunities to talk about U.S. History. Our family enjoyed some fantastic discussions as we perused the colorful photos of Washington D.C. monuments, the Alamo and more.
It is a fun, short read. While this 44-page book is full of interesting information, the pages are not text-heavy. With every turn of the page, you will find four lines of rhyming text and a collage of colorful pictures. In short, it’s fun to read and fast to read. (Parents everywhere rejoice!)
Children Love This Book
My children loved this book, too. They enjoyed the fun facts and the wildlife featured. Additionally, they were excited to see so many familiar places – places they had read about in books or seen in movies as well as places we have personally visited on our own family road trips.
My little girl enjoyed reading about and seeing pictures of wildlife found throughout the United States – the gators of Florida, the bison of Yellowstone, the sea lions along America’s golden coast, and more. She loves wildlife. (Her self-declared “best day ever” was when we took a sunrise drive through Yellowstone to see wildlife.) As you can imagine, she was D-E-L-I-G-H-T-E-D to see so many animals featured within the pages of An American Road Trip for Kids.
My son was thrilled to find interesting factoids scattered throughout this book. Did you know that the Grand Canyon is 10 miles deep and Lake Superior is over 300 miles long? For a kid who used to read a dictionary for fun before bed, this book is an awesome source of random Americana trivia!
Most of all, my children loved seeing so many familiar places. As we turned the book’s pages, my kids would often find references or pictures of places they have read about, seen in a movie or we had visited before. And, that is what we enjoyed most about this fantastic book.
Some of our favorite familiar places featured in An American Road Trip For Kids
- St. Louis – Immediately upon seeing the pictures in the book, my daughter said, “Hey, I remember seeing that rainbow before.” On a previous trip to St. Louis, she had insisted that the Gateway Arch was a giant rainbow.
- Philadelphia – While reading An American Road Trip, my kids instantly recognized Philadelphia’s Liberty Bell because they had seen it in the National Treasure
movie.
- Yellowstone – We have some wonderful memories from a recent family vacation in Yellowstone National Park so the kids were excited to revisit the park’s wildlife and unique geological features.
- Smoky Mountains – One of our all time favorite vacations was in the Smoky Mountains of North Carolina where we hiked, saw wildlife and explored waterfalls. It was so much fun to relive those memories while reading this book.
- Chicago – We have family in Chicago, and because of that and other reasons, Chicago holds a special place in our hearts. The kids were delighted to see their beloved Windy City featured in An American Road Trip for Kids.
- Washington D.C. – This is a place we have been daydreaming about visiting on a spring break vacation someday. The kids took great pleasure in telling my husband and I about all the cool stuff we could see in our nation’s capital as they pointed to various pictures from that section of the book.
- New York City – New York City is another place we haven’t visited yet. It was fun to read about NYC and daydream as a family about visiting Times Square and seeing the Statue of Liberty.
- Mount Rushmore – Our family visited Mount Rushmore last summer. Our kids proudly named off all four presidents featured on this mountainside monument when we came to this part of the book.
movie.
Our One Small Complaint
Yes, we all thoroughly enjoyed this book. Our only complaint is a small one. We wish there had been more captions. Some of the pictures don’t have captions with them, and we really really wanted to know more about them. Oh well! I guess we will just have to road trip over to see a couple of those places for ourselves sometime.
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Our family will definitely be reading it again before (and during) our next big road trip!
This book sounds like fun. I like reading about places I’ve been and places I want to go. I bet kids would really like this!