Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Long trip with a voracious reader

Once we were on vacation in a resort town over spring break, and D1 had some report due the day she got back to school (assigned the Friday before they left, don't get me started...). Anyway, we went to the public library. While she was researching I found a book on the shelf by her favorite author in a favorite series that we had not known existed ("The River of Adventure" by Enid Blyton). HAD to have it to read. The library allowed us to pay a fee for an "out of town" library card. We checked out the book and mailed it back from home a couple of weeks later. Worth every cent... Check the website for the public library where you are traveling, they might have a similar option.

And when I was a kid -- we just took shopping bags of books on every trip (but traveling by car, can't tell if you are).

I still recall the trip when DD was five-- 14 hours in the car and six days at our destination, and this required 15 Magic Treehouse books, 10 Cam Jansen books, 4 of the Series of Unfortunate Events, a Harry Potter novel, and a trip to the bookstore while we were there.


It wouldn't be so bad if she didn't read so darned fast.

I was never so pleased as when e-readers and library checkouts for them became a thing in our lives. Otherwise I'd have been left choosing between underwear and books for our three week jaunt across Europe. Heheheh. No comment.

There are a few other airports with used bookstores, unfortunately I'm drawing a blank at the moment on which ones. I agree with the idea of looking for inexpensive books along the way, and taking a few extra long ones from home/the library.

You guys are awesome! Thank you for the ideas. We haven't really tried a Nook or Kindle yet. He has an iPad, but has never liked reading on it. It sounds like we need to try something else.

We are flying and driving for several hours. My son can't read in the car because he gets carsick. I have a daughter and she has to have books too, so that's why we really need to consolidate.

I'll probably buy some and take some. We might visit the library too since we are visiting family. Thank you all so much!

For the car, you could download a few audiobooks for your son.

A kindle (not Kindle Fire) is much easier to read on than an iPad. I can read my Kindle in the full sun without a problem. A basic kindle is only good at one thing, reading chapter ebooks, but it does it well.

I sympathize about carsick kids. We do long car trips about twice a year and when my son was younger we brought along books on tape for him and eventually got him his own ipod for audiobooks.

Lol, I personally would go crazy without access to books for two weeks!

We have a similar routine for our longer, international vacations. For example, we're going to Italy for 3 weeks. I will load both my Kindle and iPad with ebooks (so two people don't have to share one reader!). For DD6 I will also bring along some math word problems, a journal for writing, a small activity unit on Renaissance artists (to supplement what she learned at school this year), and a few easy to pack trivia games.

My DD also gets carsick and can't read in the car. That is where audiobooks are a lifesaver. Charlotte's web and mr poppers penguins Are two favorites in our house. She also listens to a lot of music (but music is her passion, and might not be as entertaining to others!) in the car.