Adele and Simon (by Barbara McClintock) live in early 20th century Paris. Every day Adele collects her little brother Simon from what is probably like to preschool here, and they walk home together by way of the park, art museum, and patisserie (among other stops). Simon loses his belongings along the way, which elicits some big sisterly chiding from Adele, who warns of what Mama will say to Simon when he gets home. McClintock's illustrations are beautifully rendered in a vintage style reminiscent of the clock period in watercolour and delicate drawing. We like to look for the missed items in the pictures. In Adele and Simon in America, the two visit their aunt living in New York. The trio of them travel across the still-growing United States, Simon losing his things on the way but Aunt Cecile ready to think them. Mapsin both books show their trails, not unlike the points we're plotting on our map here at house of the places our family visit.
Many of the books in Miroslav Sasek's "This Is" series date from the sixties and 70s, and therefore aren't necessarily up-to-the minute accurate (though the recently-published editions have footnotes updating where necessary). That doesn't matter one bit to me, though, as I am not look for travel tips here. What they may want in guide book accuracy they build up for in the style and fun factors. Our library only has This Is London, Paris, Rome, Venice, Hong Kong, Texas, and Edinburgh (from whence my maternal grandfather emigrated when he was 7 days old), but there are at least that many more and so some, including Ireland, Israel, Greece, New York, San Francisco, and Australia. Maybe someday. We also like Ludwig Bemelman's Madeline books, especially Madeline in London, Madeline and The Bad Hat, and Madeline and The Cats of Rome. From the puff of our siesta nest we can move the earth with these books and others like them. Bonjour!
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