Last summer, I fell in love with the ethnic food book series for kids that I discovered in Whole Foods. Now a new set of children’s travel books have stolen my heart. You MUST check out Miroslav Šašek’s “This Is …” series.
This is London, New York, San Francisco, Paris … and the list goes on and on.
Czech architect, Miroslav Šašek, began his career in children’s literature in the late 1940’s — just before the coup d’état in his home country. After emigrating to Germany and trying his hand at radio, he returned to writing. Then in 1959, Šašek published “This is Paris”, the first in his beloved 18-book series. For more than 50 years, children everywhere have been able to sample the world’s greatest locales through his works.
Even though the books have won numerous awards over the years, I’ve never heard of them until today! (Yes, I’m still trying to figure out how I could have possibly missed this!) What’s exciting is that Random House has reissued many of the books in the series during the past few years. I guess the old adage is true … “What’s old is new again!”
Here’s the full list of the books in Šašek’s “This Is” series …. The coolest thing about it? GILT has them on sale for the next few days. (BTW, GILT’s also offering a deal on the “Larry Gets Lost” book series which will be our next reading list post on kids books.)
| Book Cover | Book Title | Published | Reissued |
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This is Paris | 1959 | 2004 |
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This is London | 1959 | 2004 |
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This is Rome | 1960 | 2007 |
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This is New York | 1960 | 2003 |
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This is Edinburgh | 1961 | 2006 |
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This is Munich | 1961 | —- |
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This is Venice | 1961 | 2005 |
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This is San Francisco | 1962 | 2003 |
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This is Israel | 1962 | 2008 |
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This is Cape Canaveral later This is Cape Kennedy now This is the Way to the Moon |
1963 | 2009 |
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This is Ireland | 1964 | 2005 |
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This is Hong Kong | 1965 | 2007 |
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This is Greece | 1966 | 2009 |
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This is Texas | 1967 | 2006 |
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This is the United Nations | 1968 | —- |
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This is Washington, DC | 1969 | —- |
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This is Australia | 1970 | —- |
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This is Historic Britain now This is Britain |
1974 | 2008 |
The world has changed in the half-century since Šašek penned his first book in the series. If he was still alive today, which cities would you want him to add to the mix? I’d totally ask for:
Africa: Accra, Addis Ababa, Cairo, Capetown, Johannesburg, Lagos, Marrakech
Asia: Bangkok, Beijing, Dubai, Mumbai, Tokyo
Australia: Sydney, Melbourne, Great Barrier Reef
Europe: Amsterdam, Barcelona, Berlin, Helsinki, Istanbul, Lisbon, Madrid, Milan, Prague, Stockholm, Venice
North America: Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, Toronto, Vancouver
South America: Bogota, Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo
Are there children in your life that you want to introduce to the world? Even if there aren’t, this is still a great series to get — especially if you’re a sucker for good visual design and illustration like me.
Stay Fly!
-Chelle
