Children’s book review: A world full of journeys and migrations

This week’s children’s book review is all about A world full of journeys and migrations by Martin Howard. It was published on 8th February 2022 and is available to purchase at Amazon.

Why do people migrate? Who were the first travellers in history? And where will we humans travel to next?

Since the dawn of time, people have travelled to distant lands for many different reasons; to escape war, famine or injustice, to find work, or to simply see new sights and have an adventure. But everyone who migrates does it to seek a brighter future.

A World Full of Journeys tells some of the most fascinating stories of migration throughout history. From the very first humans who left Africa almost 70,000 years ago and moved around the world, to immigrants welcomed to America at Ellis Island, this book is packed with fascinating tales of human triumph.

Children can be so full of questions and it’s great to hear them having an interest in different things. However, as an adult I really don’t know a lot about some things so it’s always nice to have some interesting books at home that can help you with at least a few of the answers.

Something I think children tend to ask about is how something started or ‘who was the first,’ and ‘why’ for just about everything. This book has the perfect start, helping to explain why we move and what some of the reasons might be. This short, but really useful section covers things such as war, adventure and changes in climate!

Another great section in this book is ‘The First Journeys’. Children may or may not know at this point that the earth used to look really different to how it does today. Moving around would have been completely different, especially for the first people to make a journey somewhere new and actually survive. There’s a great 2 page image that shows that you actually could walk from Russia to North America many, many years ago. This is bound to impress the kids!

For ease, the book is set up into really clear sections after the introductions. These include Africa, Asia, Oceania, Europe, The Americas and The World and Beyond, with each section broken down further. This means you and your children can look at any area of interest. Schools might be focusing on a specific time like slavery in America or the division of South Africa, so you can read bits at a time if you want to.

Something else to mention is just how beautiful this book is. The whole book is really bright and colourful and the illustrations are fantastic throughout. There’s loads to look at on each page, with a good mix between illustrations, colour and the text.

‘A world full of journeys and migrations’ is such a great book and it’s full of so many interesting facts. As an adult you’re bound to learn something too if you’re reading with children.

Also available from the series: A Year Full of Stories, A World Full of Animal Stories, A Stage Full of Shakespeare Stories, A World Full of Dickens Stories, A World Full of Spooky Stories, A Year Full of Celebrations and Festivals, A Bedtime Full of Stories and A World Full of Nature Stories.