4 Young Adult Books for Travellers

When I was growing up, I was always looking for kids in books who knew airports & passports & travel as well as I did. But there was a dearth of kid travellers, unless you count Laura Ingalls Wilder, who I guess technically traveled all the time.

I found a few, & I loved them. Now there seems to be a trip-to-Europe trend in YA novels, which is kind of great. Just One Day, 13 Little Blue Envelopes, & The Fault in Our Stars all feature a teenage protaganist (or two) that fly off to Europe at some point.

Here are 4 of my favourite YA novels for travellers.

The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight
by Jennifer E. Smith

I found The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight last summer, & I loved it more than I really expected to because: travel! teenage protaganist! airplane to London! This kind of book did not exist when I was a teenage protagonist traveling on airplanes to London, & I would have loved it.

Bloomability
by Sharon Creech

Bloomability is about a girl named Dinnie who lives with her "semi-nomadic family*" & whose dad is "transiently employed.*" I feel you, Dinnie. Also, she ends up at an awesome boarding school in Switzerland, a country that I love.

Betsy & the Great World
by Maud Hart Lovelace

I have read Betsy & the Great World nearly every year since I discovered it in high school. Betsy sails away on a ship to Europe after graduating & ends up discovering Venice, Munich, London, & even an exotic island in the middle of the Atlantic. It's a simple story, but one of my favourites of all time.

Anna & the French Kiss
by Stephanie Perkins

Anna moves, against her will, to a boarding school in Paris, where her world is expanded & she falls in love with a great British boy. The end.

Bonus Young Adult Book for Travelers:
The Impossible Knife of Memory 
by Laurie Halse Anderson

The Impossible Knife of Memory doesn't fit this jet-off-to-Europe list BUT it's a great book for teenagers who travel a lot. Hayley is an army kid & this book really deals with some of the crazy ways that affects her & her family. 

*Thank you for that, Wikipedia.

those books in that suitcase came from here

5 British Picture Books

Our childhood visits to England left us with a deep, crazy love for British books.
No wonder, when we grew up reading books like this.

Here are 5 of our favourite British picture books for kids.

The Tiger Who Came to Tea

"Once there was a little girl called Sophie, & she was having tea with her mummy in the kitchen. Suddenly there was a ring at the door."

The Tiger Who Came to Tea

by Judith Kerr

Peepo

"Here's a little baby

One, two, three

Stands in his cot

What does he see?"

Peepo

by Janet & Allen Ahlberg

Five Minutes Peace

"The children were having breakfast.

This was not a pleasant sight."

Five Minutes Peace

by Jill Murphy

Paddington

"Mr. & Mrs. Brown first met Paddington on a railway platform."

Paddington

by Michael Bond

Alfie Gives a Hand

"One day Alfie came home from Nursery School with a card in an envelope.

His best friend, Bernard, had given it to him."

Alfie Gives a Hand

by Shirley Hughes

footnote:

In case you where wondering...

If I could only get one of these, it would be The Tiger Who Came to Tea, no question.
Kids love that book. Because it's awesome.

5 British Picture Books: The Tiger Who Came to Tea, & cover, Peepo, Five Minutes Peace, Paddington, Alfie Gives a Hand

3 Tips for Living with Wanderlust

I grew up on the move.

While I spent most of my childhood living in one house in one town, my whole family spent every summer traveling around Europe in tents with a team of teenagers.

So while I generally crave stability & a home base that stays in one spot, I also can't quite keep still. I always want a bit of movement.

I think that's what they call wanderlust.

In my experience, wanderlust can not be cured. But it can be lived with. It's taken me years to learn how to both stay put & to wander well. And hopefully to remain a sane & semi-balanced person through it all. Here are a few tips that can help you live with wanderlust:

1. Remember the places you've been.

There have been stages when I tried to shut out the wander-y part of me, in favour of a stable life, or maybe in an attempt to look "normal." But ignoring this side of me has never worked.

Even if you are staying put for a while (or forever!) try to integrate your crazy travel experiences into your regular life. For me, this means having pictures around, using the souvenirs I've collected, & actually talking about the places I've been & the things I've done & seen.

It won't replace actually going on trips & being new places. But it helps.

2. Explore the place you live now.

Travel isn't just about exotic places & foreign languages. It's also about curiosity.

Find the things a tourist might find in your city or hometown. Find a way to be curious about the life that's right in front of you.

3. Cross a border, even if you have to invent it.

This is the magic trick I've discovered, that helps me to live with wanderlust & remain a semi-stable person. Cross a border, even if you have to invent it.

Every week, I go someplace that is not where I live. If I'm living in a small town, I travel to a slightly bigger town. If I'm living in the city, I spend a few hours in the suburbs. Go somewhere as different as possible from the place you spend the majority of your time.

It's a weird trick. But I'm not kidding -- for me it's been revolutionary. I GO for a few hours, & I come back to my regular life refreshed. When I skip a week, I can tell.

Part of the habit of travel is not so much that the places we visit are particularly exotic or so much more fabulous then anywhere else. It's the change, the habit of variety.

The routine of leaving the place you live & crossing a border - even if it's just to wander a mall in the suburbs - meets that need for variety & stimulates the part of you that usually lays dormant without travel.

It's not the same as jetting off to Paris for the weekend. And it certainly won't "cure" you of wanderlust. But for me it does the trick.

I'm always looking for ways to live better with my intrinsic wanderlust.

Any tips that work for you?

Wanderlust picture