Friday Favorites: “This Is” Book Series

A few of my favorites things are travel, history & books. I love sharing these things with my children & plan to do so more as they grow. When we travel, I love finding children’s books to bring back with us. I think they are the best souvenirs. Maggie & I  love reading the books we’ve collected on trips. The books remind us of the trip & we talk about the things we saw, people we traveled with, etc. Some of our favorite books, are the ones in Italian that we brought back from a book store in Florence. We read Jenny’s Pennies & talk about Nantucket & one of my favorites is 123 Chicago because I have so many great memories of that city.

I’ve always wanted to find children’s books that went into cultural & historical detail of the places we’ve traveled. While at an event in New York City a few months ago, I spotted a book on display that caught my eye “This Is Ireland“. I picked it up & couldn’t put it down! The art was beautiful & it was packed with history. It wasn’t for sale, but I was determined to find it. 

I found out that the book is part of a whole series of books written by Miroslav Sasek. They were written over 50 years ago & are now being rereleased. I got the girls This Is Ireland & Maggie got This Is New York for her birthday. 

I’m a history & travel nerd so I’ve read them both cover to cover quite a few times. They are cheerful, funny & historical all at the same time. They also do a great job of showing fun things about the culture of the cities too. The girls are a little young to sit through the whole book right now, so we look at the pictures & I read them the highlights. We love pointing out places in the books we’ve seen. 

I’d like to collect all of this wonderful series, starting with the places we’ve traveled with the kids. I think the next two on our list to buy are This is Rome& This is San Francisco.

They are such enjoyable books for both adults & children. I hope you enjoy them as much as we do!