The Scrambled States of America

When I was searching for gifts this past Christmas I came across this book called The Scrambled States of America by Laurie Keller.

I noticed it has a 5-star rating, read a bunch of reviews about fun this book is and bought it for the kids. They both have been learning about Geography and I figured would be really interested in this book.

The gist of the book is that one morning Kansas wakes up grumpy. He's tired of being in the middle of nowhere and nothing happening. The states decide to throw a party. At the party they decide to all switch places so they can see somewhere new. 

This book does not disappoint. I loved this book. I was laughing out loud at this book. I admit that I have a hard time reading children's books in a 'fun' way - with a voice over, or getting in to 'character'. I don't sound that interesting when I read. But with this book I found myself automatically changing my voice and really getting in to it based on the characters in the book and the characters given to the states. I especially loved all the side-captions. Laurie Keller brings a personality to each state and they are both humorous and realistic!

Kayla and Lucas really like this book as well. It kept their attention and they were really interested in it. Especially Lucas; he kept asking a lot of questions about the states and why this state said that and what was so funny about it.

This is the perfect description for the book, "Packed with madcap humor and whimsical illustrations, this quirky story-starring all fifty states-is chock-full of introductory facts and silly antics that will make learning geography as much fun as taking a vacation."

I also bought the Scrambled States board game. They needed quite a bit of help on this one (it is for ages 8 and up), but still thought it was fun trying to get all the states 'home.' (Although it's a little misleading as you are not actually placing the states back on a map where they belong.) But like anything - the more we play it the easier it'll get for them.

I definitely give this book 2-thumbs up; or 5-stars.