The Passport Project

April 29, 2022

Gr 5 Up-Travel the world with the McIntyre family exploring 12 countries and experiencing sights, cultures, and customs around the world. When their parents tell eighth grader Delaney and seventh grader Riley they would be taking them out of school for five months for a global adventure, their reactions are mixed. Riley is excited for the experience while Delaney is disappointed to miss parties and school dances while having to spend 24/7 with her family. Each McIntyre is only able to pack one suitcase, and some of the countries they visit include Italy, Thailand, Malaysia, and Australia. At each stop they learn about the culture, try the local cuisine, and go on adventures, such as bungee jumping or scuba diving. The places they stay in range from fancy enough to have their own room to sharing a bed and having to use an outhouse. As they travel, the girls homeschool, read selected books related to the countries they are traveling to, and contribute to blog posts about their adventures. The family is white and they interact with people of a variety of races throughout their travels. The book is peppered with color photos from their travel, and each chapter begins with a map of the featured country and concludes with passport lessons and a report card listing their best and worst parts of visiting the country. There are discussion questions in the back matter. VERDICT A unique and engaging way for readers to learn about different countries, cultures, and points of view.-Sarah Polace

Copyright 2022 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 1, 2022
A travel book by a mother and her two daughters focuses on the family's five-month trip around the world and the lessons learned along the way. The McIntyres' autobiographical work is written from the perspectives of teenagers Delaney and Riley. The girls recount that they weren't sure how they felt about their parents' plans to take them out of middle school and go "on a global family field trip." The girls really weren't surprised, as they knew how much their parents loved to travel, but they worried about what they would miss at home. The family had ventured to foreign countries before, and readers get a glimpse of a previous trip to Panama. After their parents included London on the itinerary, the girls acquiesced. The family traveled to a diverse array of countries and had some scary, thrilling, and eye-opening experiences. First, they went to Europe. In Iceland, they visited geothermal springs and a geyser; in England, they trekked to Stonehenge, the Tower of London, and the Harry Potter sets at the Warner Bros. Studio; in Italy, they explored the Colosseum and Vatican City. Then they moved on to Asia, where they immediately noticed a difference between their clothes and those of the locals. They were also surprised by the Christmas decorations in Malaysia and the traffic rules in Vietnam. In Australia and New Zealand, they got to hold a koala bear, bungee jump, and scuba dive on the Great Barrier Reef before finishing their trip via Indonesia and China. In this engrossing book, the teens insightfully express key lessons, such as "every country gets to tell their version of history," which they learned at a prisoner-of-war camp in Vietnam. The richly detailed, educational work is a wonderful resource for families considering a similar experience. The volume could be given to tweens or teens to help them ready themselves for the adventure and to build anticipation and commitment to the endeavor. Maps, family photographs, and a "report card" section listing the travelers' most and least favorite experiences in each country are excellent inclusions. An engaging and enlightening travel account about a family's global journey.

COPYRIGHT(2022) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.