Review: City Trails – Tokyo

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City Trails is a series of books from Lonely Planet Kids that leads the reader through different cities around the world.  Today we are looking at Tokyo.  In it we will learn the secrets, stories and other cool stuff found in this magnificent city. 

In the beginning of the book we get the table of contents, along with a map showing the points of interest.  We get to watch a fish feeding, learn about earthquakes, visit Robot world, see the cars of the future and go to the theatre.   All the major points of interest are highlighted to give you a well rounded view of the city.

In the process of visiting these points of interest we are also introduced to Japanese culture (such as it’s polite to talk quietly in public and one doesn’t express feelings of emotion in public). The fun of the kite festivals and so much more. 

As you can see, the pages are in full colour, with a mixture of photos and drawings. The image of the Robot Park made me want to go visit it.  Would be fun to see it you know?  The reader is taken down into the fabric district, the traditional food streets, and all the places dedicated to animals.  

What I thought:

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, it showed me parts of Tokyo I hadn’t even considered.  Who would think of a museum dedicated to parasites?  Or learning what traditional Japanese underwear was?   It was just filled with interesting tidbits about the city and the Japanese culture.  Just a fun book.  Made me want to go visit Tokyo so I could see all these sights for myself.. perhaps one day. 🙂  This would be a great book to hand to an upper elementary to middle school student if you are doing a country study, or wanting to visit Japan.  They could easily pick a few items out that they wanted to know more about. 

City Trails: Tokyo Anna Claybourne Lonely Planet Kids 104 pages, 8-12 years. Board cover with flap, geography Series: City Trails Reviewed for: Raincoast Books. Where to purchase? Amazon Link.

Other books that teach about geographical areas:

Following the Great Wall. 
Rocky Mountain Explorer.
Mission to Pluto.