Our family shares a lot of interests - travel, baseball, spending time with family & friends AND reading. We all try to get lost in a book every day, so I thought it would be great to share some of our favorite children's books set in our favorite city, Chicago!
Our family first met Larry on a trip to San Francisco and since then he has traveled all around the country. Our oldest was given Larry Gets Lost in Chicago for his first birthday and it was an instant favorite! Larry gets separated from his family (distracted by a donut naturally) while getting ready to hop on the "L" train. The book takes us through all of the favorite spots in the Windy City as family, and pooch, search for one another. Since the original story was published Larry has starred in some board book adaptations that are perfect for a baby's chubby hands.
The "Good Night" series has grown significantly over the years - in fact, if we discover one in a city we have visited then it is an automatic souvenir for us. The story is simple - it takes us through a full day in Chicago and celebrates the people and places that mean so much to us. These are board books, but our 2 year old and 7 year old both enjoy reading them.
I bought this book back in the spring of 2015 and it was the inspiration for a lot of our adventures. It would be a gift to give someone planning a trip, or move, to Chicago with kids! The guide is simply laid out alphabetically with crisp photos of each item, facts about each location and trivia questions too. The last pages in the book include a place to write a journal entry about your visit to Chicago and a map to mark off some of the sites you saw with corresponding stickers. As I skim our copy of this book now I am reminded that there are still great places we have yet to see.
Another gift to our son, this book is written & illustrated by an Evanston couple and is entertaining to the whole family. The story follows the journey of a pigeon named Peter, who is going to visit his grandfather, who happens to live on the Sears Tower. The turn of each page brings you to a new spot in the city as Peter travels from Notre Dame to Chicago. Every page, except for the first, also has an image, sometimes just a glimpse, of the famed building. If you come across this book I highly recommend adding it to your collection.
Happy Reading! I would love to hear any other book suggestions from our Macaroni Kid community. Let me know on our Facebook page!
Next month I will bring a new collection of books to share and a review on some of my favorite local book sellers too!
