Review: What you need, before you leave . . .
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 10 18, 2011
For a book written for kids, Planet Explorers is one of the most innovative guidebooks on the market today.  What makes it such a must-have if you're traveling to the Big Apple?  It fits on your smart phone, or ipad, or any other device that gets you onto the internet where this little book really shines.Wanting to go to a particular tourist attraction in New York?  Just hit on a chapter heading that sits at the front of the book just as it would in a ordinary paperback, but instead of looking for the page number, one click takes you right to where you want to go.  Say you want to go to Ellis Island, you click on the chapter and from there you find lots of facts about the island such as:"Ellis Island Fun Facts!* Between 1892 and 1924, about 12 million individuals passed through Ellis Island. About 35-40% of today's Americans have ancestors that were processed here.* Several famous people passed through Ellis Island, including composer Irving Berlin, novelist Isaac Asimov, movie director Frank Capra, actor Cary Grant and comedian Bob Hope.* Ellis Island was once called Oyster Island.* Ellis Island is much bigger today than it used to be. It was made larger by using dirt taken from subway tunnels. * Ellis Island was also known as Island of Tears because 2% of immigrants were denied entrance to the United States there, usually for having a contagious disease or criminal record." --Planet Explorers Guidebook New York City.Along with great places to eat and what kind of food they're serving, a must when kids are along for the ride.Going to Coney Island?  Don't forget to have a hot dog at Nathan's Famous. And if you happen to be there for the 4th of July, with this little book you'll know that there's a hot dog eating contest you kids can tuck into.There are lots of pictures and the whole book is set up to be easy to read with lots of bold chapter headings to keep you on track.  There are even hyperlinks to connect you to .org sites if you want to go deeper into the subjects you're visiting.I love the view from high above the city, and the schematic of the subway system.  And there's even a quiz at the end that you can ask your kids(or yourself) to see if you were really paying attention.I'm going to buy one of these inexpensive books for every city I visit.