My Adventure in London

My Adventure in London, by Leonardo Acero and Silvia Calo, is a children's guidebook and souvenir scrapbook. Aimed at children aged six and up the book introduces the popular attractions in London using a double-page spread for each location with full-color photos and bright illustrations. There's a tourist character on each page called Leo to help children imagine themselves visiting the places in the book.

What makes this different from other children's guidebooks is that it's a scrapbook and not a listings book. As well as highlighting the top attractions in London, children are encouraged to collect and stick items in the book creating a personal souvenir of their time in London with stronger connections to their memories of each visit when back at home.

The book gives children a reason to go to the places included and I've already used it to encourage my six year old daughter to choose days out and to collect the suggested items. The authors intend the book to be more than something just to read but to inspire and get you involved, therefore remembering more of what you see and do.

As well as the photos and illustrations, My Adventure in London has plenty of fun 'Did you know' style facts for each attraction and there are plenty of number facts as children love to quote stats to impress their friends.

The excellent ideas include the memorable fact about the London Eye rotating at a "speed twice as fast as a tortoise sprinting". But I would have liked to see some London icons used in picture comparisons such as Big Ben is as tall as X London double deckers or red telephone boxes.

Bring A Camera

The scrapbook ideas encourage lots of photo taking with suggestions such as pose like a statue at the V&A or stand next to a Royal Guard at Horse Guard's Parade. The ideas do give children a reason to take photos but in the world of digital photography we don't often get prints of our pics so a more diverse range of things to stick would be preferred. My daughter loved the suggestion to stick her chip fork in the book and that was the idea that really got her interested in reading the other pages. She also begged to go back to the British Museum so she could collect a map to stick in the book. I wouldn't recommend following the suggestion to stick your Oyster card in the book as it's meant to be reused and can be passed on to family and friends. Plus it's very likely to still have some credit on it which means that money is then wasted if not passed on.

A blade of grass from a royal park is an excellent idea that is included in the book and other ideas could include more museums maps, tickets, leaflets, a feather, a leaf, etc. And we found sticky tape much more effective than glue for adding our 'treasures'.

Mainstream Attractions

My Adventures in London mostly covers the obvious attractions and it would have been good to see a few of the more unusual places that still appeal to children. Or even the big name places for families such as the V&A Museum of Childhood, Museum of London Docklands and the Rainforest Cafe. Also, while opening times are included, and yes there is a map at the front of the book, it doesn't include addresses, telephone numbers and web details.

• Paperback: 64 pages
• Publisher: Leo Publishing Ltd
• 1st edition: June 2012
• Dimensions: 19 x 1 x 20 cm

My Adventure in London is a simple book but creates a good scrapbook souvenir and a way to keep the interest of young members of the family before, during, and after exploring the city. See a preview on Google Books.

Disclosure: A review copy was provided by the publisher. For more information, please see our Ethics Policy.