Summer Road Trip Books

So, I'm trying to get ready for summer road trips -- trips where we're in the car "forever" as well as trips where we're camping or staying overnight places. I immediately try to come up with books/activities that will keep the kiddoes busy when it's raining or on the long hauls between Mickey-D's....

Here's our wishlist of great summer books for my 4-8 year olds:

• Klutz Books: First, let me say I'm a BIG fan of Klutz (and their other books under the name of "Chicken Socks") books -- they have lots of great, fun, kid-friendly (and parent-friendly) activities that are all contained within their spiral bound publications. Here are some of the best: Paper Fashions for my 7 yod (her friend has this and she really enjoyed playing with it the other day; it's a great way to get your kids thinking not just about fashion design, but also coordination of colors and modesty in fashion); The Fabulous Book of Paper Dolls is a great one to go with Paper Fashions -- both are excellent girl-pleasers; Lego Crazy Action Contraptions for all three (we have this, and I need to remember to pack it; everything's contained in a little ziploc pocket attached to the book and you can make some of the coolest little machines!); Super Scissors Book looks like so much fun for my 4 yos -- but he might have to fight with his siblings over it a bit!; The Only Coloring, Puzzle, Game, Dot-To-Dot Activity Book: You'll Ever Need! is perfect for my older two -- it comes with twistable crayons and has tons of activities to keep them busy; Draw the Marvel Comic Super Heroes is one of Lego Maniac's favorite books -- clear, easy to draw steps make the heroes come to life and the markers let you add just a bit of color; Crayon Rubbings sounds absolutely perfect for road trips; Building Cards: How to Build Castles will be perfect for tent-nights ... LegoManiac loves these cards and they're very easy to use; String Games should keep all three of them busy in the car and in the tent; Totally Tape sounds totally perfect for my 4 yo who loves to play with tape anyway. Now, I'm not going to necessarily get ALL of these right away (at least that's what I'll tell dh) and we do have a couple of them already. My plan is to spread them out over our summer so they can have different, constructive things to do "just in case" it rains the whole camping trip or the road-trip takes a bit longer than we expect.....
• Boy activity books that I'm really interested in getting for the guys (and String Bean too!) include: The Little Book of Whittling and Whittling Twigs and Branches which are both by Chris Lubkemann and look fantastic (and easy for the boys to do); American Boy's Handy Book and the Field and Forest Handy Book are both by D.C. Beard and are excellent old-fashioned books about boylore -- hunting, kite flying, tent-making, and other important boy stuff; and finally, the really cool-looking, awesome-sounding book by two brothers (and not even out in the States yet - but will be by the end of the week), The Dangerous Book for Boys.
• For String Bean and me to have some fun in camp and in car, I've found the following: Girls' Best Book for Knitting, Sewing and Embroidery which should keep us fairly busy (especially if I remember to pack fabric and yarn scraps!), and the American Girl's Handy Book written by the sisters of D.C. Beard.

Now, although if you're looking at these books and thinking -- wow, is she sexist! -- don't because I think that as the boys delve into their books and get all excited and as String Bean delves into hers and gets all excited -- all three of them will learn what the others are doing. That's the great thing about family -- the societal borders are broken down on long road-trips or long campfires by sheer boredom!