A Ticket Around the World

Product Information

Playful illustrations done with stylized realism lend warmth and whimsy to the book, making each locale feel welcoming. This is a WOW book for me because I love geography and it presented the information in an interesting way. A Ticket Around the Word is a great book by Melissa Owens and Natalia Diaz, illustrator by Kim Smith (2015), the plot is about a principal character a young boy who hops around the world, visiting friends in 13 different countries spanning all six continents.

Join a young boy as he hops around the globe, visiting friends in 13 different countries spanning all six populated continents. For the younger grades, the teacher could have students draw in a suitcase what they would bring to the different countries. In the illustrations on each page was an illustration of what those people might look like, landmarks that you might see, and other cultural things that are traditional to that country. For children, you’ll have children that might know a few facts but I feel most of this information will be new to them (depending on their age and experience). Diaz and Owens supplement the boy’s descriptions with introductions to each nation (“Jordan is ruled by a monarchy, which means that the king or queen in charge makes important decisions for the country”) and sidebars.Some students do not have the opportunity to experience different cultures because of various readers.

For a classroom activity, students could be placed in groups based on the countries or areas of the world that are visited in the book. He visits Canada, Costa Rica, the United States, France, Morocco, Greece, Jordan, Botswana, India, China, the Philippines and Australia. The artistic elements are extreme, this book has a lot of text so I would not recommend students to read on their own, however doing it as a class and integrating it with content and a lesson plan would be a fun filled week. The narrator in this book visits friends in 13 different countries, narrating each of them through sampling foods, viewing land marks, attending cultural events and more.I would have the students split up and to pick a country that was mentioned in the book and have them summarize the country’s attributes, and then have the students present their information the class. This gives the reader a world tour via his first-person narration as he samples foods, views landmarks, and attends cultural events, among other activities. The book is clearly for students whose first language is English but because major countries are touched on (including America) this book could work in any language.