National Geographic Kids Ultimate U.S. Road Trip Atlas: Maps, Games, Activities, and More for Hours of Backseat Fun

This is the best book for kids in the 7+ range for road trips or just for those who are interested in geography/maps/United States, etc. When we were on a road trip, we first gave it to my 9 year old son who didn't seem terribly interested. I think it was because he didn't understand what it was. My 7 year old daughter opened it up and lit up when she realized she could follow along on the map where we were driving on the car. She called out every city before we reached it for hours on end. It started a ton of questions about the state we were traveling through and our own state. She loved reading the interesting facts about the states and before long, my two kids were fighting over who got to look through the book! Any time we travel somewhere or talk about places we've gone, they pull out this book and rediscover the whole thing all over again. Tonight my daughter pulled it out and talked to her great grandmother who lived in many places all over the United States. She had her pointing out all the places she lived, asked her which national parks she had visited and had her trace out her journey across Route 66 when she traveled from the East Coast to the West Coast. This book is such a huge win for our family!

One reviewer made it sound like there's not much to this atlas. I'm a high school teacher, and I notice that many items generically labeled 'for kids' don't have a specific audience or age range in mind. This book is recommended for kids 8 and up. We have a 5 year old and an 11 year old. The 11 year old thinks it's a great trivia book with tons of maps. Our 5 year old thinks it's cool that he has his own maps, like the ones on our navigation system. The book is colorful, magazine-sized, and very appealing, visually. Most states get a 2-page spread, with a map of the state on one page, 5 Cool Things to do Here surround the map, with colored pointers to their locations, and off to the side a few smaller sections like popular roadside attractions (usually 3), and either a Fantastic State Facts or Traffic Laws You Won't Believe section. There is a brief description of the geography of each state, and images of the state bird, flower, and animal are near the state's name. Each state also has its own Boredom Buster that will occupy kids for quite a while, though they can be technology-focused. Examples include taking pictures of Clinton references as you travel through Arkansas, searching for famous people from Iowa and see who can find the most, taking pictures of tornado shelters in Kansas and see who can find the most, etc. It also includes 10 pages of games at the back which are colorful, but probably won't last more than a half hour. Some critics have made it sound like there's not much to the book. I can see that argument in one sense. There's not enough information to occupy bored kids for several hours, as you drive through a state. I do agree with the comment that the US map is too small. With the format of the book, the map could have been nearly 11 x 17, yet it's shrunk down to about 2/3 of the available space with a large, wasted green border around it. It's a good map, showing the Interstate highways with approximate drive times between each major city. It's a great way for kids to practice their time and math skills. It's just disappointing that it could have been substantially larger without changing its focus or function in any way. As a kid's atlas with lots of added trivia, it's WAY more interesting for my two boys than a regular atlas. Could they have included more information? Yes, but they could have made the pages too overwhelming for younger readers, too. I think the colorful design and layout make the atlas accessible for a wide range of ages. Though most suited for 8-12 year olds, I know many of my high school students would prefer this to a standard atlas for the trivia and layout, alone.

Bought this for 2 of my kids ages 12 and 15 for our cross country drive from Alabama to Washington State. Even though some of it was a little young for them, they loved the maps and the fun facts. They were able to pinpoint our location based on our surroundings and the roads we were on to follow our travels. Each state we drove into my 15 year old read the whole car the facts and silly laws and about some of the specific things located in the states...they especially liked that many of the locations we were going to were in the book and featured. Great way to keep kids off their electronics and make boring old car trips educational.

Just completed a road trip from Washington State to Rhode Island with two children, almost 3 and almost 7. Needless to say we are glad that it is over, but really enjoyed using this book along the way. My son, the 6yo loved looking at the pictures and reading all of the interesting facts as we entered each state. It was a great learning experience because we would be so excited when we reached a new state. I would have him read from the book and we would try to memorize all of the capitals from every state, which I am not even sure they make kids do that these days, but I can recall all of them from when I was little! The last pages has some games and puzzles which he enjoyed, and there was a license plate scramble at the end, which I thought was a little difficult for him to decipher. I would have much rater had them blank so he could color them in once we saw that plate on the road. We ended up having him write them down on a piece of paper instead of crossing them out in the book. I think it would have been easier to color, but oh well. I also wish that there were some blank pages in the front or back to write down your own observations, as we were trying to make it a learning experience for him as well. I will have to note that this is not a comprehensive map or detailed version of what is in every state. Some of the highways and freeways that we traveled on were missing, which was confusing for him because he wanted to know how we went through this state without a road , so we brought out the rand McNally road atlas that we purchased here on Amazon, and that made it a little more understandable.

Our road trips include our grandchildren. I bought one of these last year for a road trip to SD. My granddaughters loved it. This year when we went to Arizona, they fought over it, "Can I see the book".... "it's my turn to see have the book". I had to buy 3 more when we got home so each one could have their own. I kept the "beat up" (actually well used - for good reason) book for myself! Now the girls can write notes about each state they've been to, place stickers, etc. It's great in the car - we play games.... State capitols, mottos, etc. It really makes learning and hours spent in the car so much fun!! I would recommend this for anyone!

Grandson requested this book. It was his Christmas gift.

This book is pretty cool! As a homeschooling mom, I always look for fun ways to teach my son about geography.. This ultimate road trip guide does just that, but also includes fun facts about each state, as well as the important one. Including each states nickname, flower, bird, etc, are good ways to learn about the different states. I also like how it has places to visit with each state. This is helpful with checking off items on our "field trip" bucket list. The book/atlas is pretty well detailed with illustrations that makes it fun for learning.

Absolutely love this big. So detailed, great pictures, great information, easy to read and my 8 year old was very engaged in our cross country road trip. Especially love the maps so he could get some perspective on our trip. Reading this book he was the one who even found some really cool stops that we made that we wouldn’t have otherwise! I’ve bought them for all my friends now going on trips and also bought a second one for us!