Book Review: Jungle Islands

I enjoy reading travel books and it always disappoints me that there are so few written for children to go along with the geographical world tour we are making. We just finished reading Jungle Islands: My South Sea Adventure by Maria Coffey, which describes a trip the author and her husband made to explore the Solomon Islands by kayak. Lots of great pictures - real holiday photos, not the posed shots that illustrate the standard "this is how children live in such-and-such country" books - and text that brings the islands to life. Each chapter starts with a map showing that stage of their journey. We all enjoyed this one, though I think I have a slight preference for the first book we read in this series: 52 Days by Camel, My Sahara Adventure by Lawrence Raskin. If only there were more books of this type. We are off to Australia next, for which I have only managed to get a few "This is Australia" style books from the library and a short biography of Captain Cook.