If you’re looking for a way to inspire your toddler to travel, reading travel-related books can encourage their curiosity to learn about new customs and cultures worldwide. Not only that, it can also be a great way to bond with your little one while it may also encourage them to slowly learn how to read.
Experts said that reading to your young child can help with their communication as well as literacy skills, so why not do it while also giving them some inspiration to travel and explore new thing through travel-related books?
It’s never too early to start collecting books, even when your toddler can barely read. In this post, we will share some book recommendations that may inspire toddlers to travel. Whether you’re planning for your next family holiday or you want to expose your little one to the life outside where they live, here are some books to inspire your kid to travel!
Top 10 Books to Inspire Your Toddler to Travel
- Everything & Everywhere: A Fact-Filled Adventure for Curious Globe-Trotters by Marc Martin
- This Is How I Do It: One Day in the Life of You and 59 Kids from Around the World by Math Lamonte
- National Geographic Little Kids First Big Book of the World by Elizabeth Carney
- Lonely Planet Kids My Travel Journal 1 by Nicola Baxter & Andy Mansfield
- The Airport Book by Lisa Brown
- Hello, World Series by Ashley Evanson
- Babies Around the World by Puck
- Good Night World by Adam Gamble & Cooper Kelly
- Everywhere, Wonder by Matthew Swanson & Robbi Behr
- The Boy Who Loved Maps by Kari Allen & G. Brian Karas
#1 Everything & Everywhere: A Fact-Filled Adventure for Curious Globe-Trotters by Marc Martin
Not to mistake this book with the recent Oscar-winning movie, Everything & Everywhere: A Fact-Filled Adventure for Curious Globe Trotters is a great choice for toddlers and young children as the book is full of some fun illustrations to introduce them to new cultures around the world.
Marc Martin has done a great job combining some quirky but interesting facts about each destination and putting some fun games between pages that make the book interactive for young children.
From Australia to Antarctica, it’s a great book to introduce your children to some places around the world and show them the diversity and differences in how we live. From something as random as how most New Yorkers fold their pizza to eat it, to something educational like the number population of penguins in Antarctica, this book is a must-read for both adults and young toddlers with passion for traveling!
#2 This Is How I Do It: One Day in the Life of You and 59 Kids from Around the World by Math Lamonte
This is How I Do It: One Day in the Life of You and 59 Kids from Around the World is an engaging book suitable for young kids, as it highlights the story of 59 kids in different countries that your kids may find fascinating. Not only because of their different customs, but also how similar they could be despite the fact that they live on the other side of the world!
By reading this book, parents can teach their kids to learn how to respect the diversity of the way people live around the world while also using the similarities to connect with people from other cultures.
As a bonus, Math Lamonte also includes extra bonuses to encourage your toddler to use their motor skills while reading the book. The book comes with some drawing activities that could be fun for your children, and it comes with a package of postcards and a fold-out map that makes reading it like an adventure on its own!
#3 National Geographic Little Kids First Big Book of the World by Elizabeth Carney
One of the National Geographic series for young children, Little Kids First Big Book of the World has a few chapters split by each continent, so it’s easier to choose which part of the world you want to introduce to your kids first.
In each chapter, Elizabeth Carney introduces us to some informative guide about the continent in general before focusing on each country and introducing us to its people, animals, and some popular places to visit in the area.
The book also comes with some extra activities for young children, from introducing some children’s song in Spanish to creating a DIY rainforest in the bottle, this book is definitely an excellent gateway to introduce your toddler to the big world and inspire them to travel!
#4 Lonely Planet Kids My Travel Journal 1 by Nicola Baxter & Andy Mansfield
A little bit different to some other book options in this list, this Lonely Planet Kids My Travel Journal 1 is suitable to encourage your toddler for their first trip. The book was created for them to document their first travel, with some fun journaling activities.
Nicola Baxter and Andy Mansfield collaborated to create great content and illustration for the journal, including some fun pictures and excellent prompts to encourage young children to share their travel stories in this journal.
Your children can draw the activities they did during their travel, or they can also add postcards or photos to document their childhood memories. If your kid is old enough to learn how to read and write, this Lonely Planet book is also a great way to practice their skill!
#5 The Airport Book by Lisa Brown
A must-read book to prepare your toddler for their first flight, The Airport Book tells a story of travelling through an airport with informative guides that can help your young kid understand what to expect before the flight. Starting from the type of people you see at the airport, to a simple guidance of passing the security check before boarding.
Lisa Brown captured the common situations encountered before flights while giving helpful tips through engaging illustrations. The story comes with comic book-style speech bubbles, so you can read the text while your kid can easily see the visual through the picture instead.
The book is full of some airport hacks that can be easily absorbed by toddlers, so make sure to add The Airport Book to prepare your kid for their first trip on the plane!
#6 Hello, World Series by Ashley Evanson
Hello, World series by Ashley Evanson consists of nine different books about specific destinations from London, Tokyo, to Los Angeles. You can get a book based on the destination of your choice, or you can also purchase the whole series in a bundle to expose your toddlers to more places and fun facts about each destination.
Each book highlights a different theme, so your toddler can learn about shapes in Paris or numbers in San Francisco. It comes with a nice illustration, making it more fun to read for kids who love looking at visual descriptions of each theme.
#7 Babies Around the World by Puck
One of the travelling essences is to recognise foreign languages, so why not start with learning to say hello in different languages around the world? Babies Around the World has a simple concept of introducing young kids to different phrases to say hello in different places.
While there’s no story plot in this book, the book comes with cute pictures that are quite engaging for young kids like toddlers. And in this book, you can teach your kids how to say hello in languages like Spanish or Afrikaans.
First, they know how to say hello. And maybe next, they can practice it on their next family vacation to the destination? Either way, this book is a great way to educate your kid to be a worldly citizen at an early age!
#8 Good Night World by Adam Gamble
Good Night World is a board book highlighting different places in the world, from Great Barrier Reefs in Australia to Mount Everest in Nepal. It’s a great illustrated book, especially if you and your toddlers love nature, as it’s a great book to read for their bedtime story.
Apart from this Good Night World book, Adam Gamble also has various versions of his Good Night series that you can opt for based on a specific place. While you can check out his book Good Night Beach to prepare your kid for a beach holiday, he also has so many books with a specific destination in North America, from Los Angeles to Montreal!
#9 Everywhere, Wonder by Matthew Swanson & Robbi Behr
Everywhere, Wonder is not only a book that can inspire your toddler to travel, but it is also a book that can encourage them to count their blessings in where they are.
With a charming illustration from Robbi Behr, Matthew Swanson tells a story of a young boy who travelled near and far to find a wonderful world in front of him all along. It’s a good choice for a bedtime story, especially if you want one with a strong moral message.
#10 The Boy Who Loved Maps by Kari Allen & G. Brian Karas
The Boy Who Loved Maps is a storytelling book about a young mapmaker who loves anything map-related, until he meets a girl who looks for a map of a perfect place. Together, they get into an adventure looking for one until they realise that what they’re looking for is their home.
Kari Allen did an excellent job of teaching kids to learn how to love their neighbourhood and be thankful for the safe place that is their home. In addition, the book also comes with some activities that your toddler can do on their own, such as creating a map of their home and neighbourhood.
Conclusion
There are so many ways to take your toddler to explore the world, and reading is one of them. The purpose of these books is not only to introduce them to things that happen outside their home, but they can also inspire your toddler to travel and explore some more.
From learning how to make a map of their home on Kari Allen’s The Boy Who Loved Maps, to packing Lonely Planet Kids My Travel Journal to accompany them and document their travel memories, there are so many books you can encourage your young kids to read and explore!
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