New Children’s Book Teaches Young Travelers About Airports

Anyone who has navigated their way through a modern airport lately knows it’s like navigating a maze. As a travel writer/photographer for several decades, I have visited many countries (56 to be precise) and have flown in and out of any number of airports, big and small. I’m often struck by their increasingly complicated layout and how maneuvering my way through has become exceedingly time-consuming and challenging.

This brings us to my wife, Roxie Munro, who (more than anyone) knows her way around a maze. She has already had maze books published on a variety of subjects.

Now, in her A-MAZE-ing Airport Adventure, a child accompanied by Mom and Dad is taking a trip for a grandmother visit. The book starts at arrival at Sunnyside Airport, and from there, we move – never in a straight line! – through departures, check-in, security, airport shops, the food court, the terminals leading to the gates, and into a large plane interior.

After leaving the gate and rolling across taxiways to the main runway, it’s finally time for takeoff: “UP, UP, AND AWAY!”

The large full-colored spreads in A-MAZE-ing Airport Adventure are all rendered in Roxie’s distinctive style. (She has contributed 14 covers for The New Yorker magazine and has written and illustrated more than 50 children’s nonfiction books, ten of which feature true-life mazes like cities, ecosystems, museums, parks, farms, landscapes, and more.)

In addition to the winding mazes, each double-page spread includes a challenging list of relevant items to find. Direct instructions (after SECURITY, you “Enter the FOOD COURT and SHOPS. First get a cold drink, and then…”) guide readers through the mazes. In the back matter, an answer key to the maze path and finding elements keep frustration at bay while providing useful and reassuring flying facts.

I wish I’d had something like this when I was stuck in Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris during a surprise snowstorm at Christmas on our way to Tunisia late at night. In the huge, cavernous, almost empty gate area, most of the lights were off, and all the shops were closed. It was isolating and gloomy. We finally left at 3:00 a.m. after an interminably long wait.

Airports have improved in some ways. Before I started using digital cameras, I dreaded the strong x-ray machines in some airports’ security procedures, as they could damage certain types of film.

I remember climbing down from a small plane that had just landed at the tiny Spitsbergen airport at 2:00 a.m. in June (halfway between the top of Norway and the North Pole) and having to put on sunglasses to cut the glare of the brilliant sun sliding across the tarmac.

And the time after leaving New York for Istanbul when, midflight over Greenland, we turned around, dropped down to 10,000 feet, and flew two hours back to the closest large airport (Halifax, Canada). We landed at the far end of the runway to a phalanx of emergency vehicles.

We hung out, bored and exhausted, in the cold, empty gate area almost all night until we were cleared to continue. It turns out there had been a credible bomb threat. But children would have loved having a book like my wife’s to alleviate the tedium and fear.

Whether preparing for a trip or whiling away hours on a flight, readers will find this book absorbing and informative. It’s perfect for children going on a trip, learning about travel, and keeping interested at the airport and on the plane.

The review journal, Kirkus, said: “Keep this one in your carry-on—an activity book sure to make time fly.” It’s also great for children on the spectrum.

The book promotes fine motor development, map-reading, and observational skills, making it perfect for classroom activities, travel preparation, or interactive fun at home. Its design encourages spatial awareness, logic, collaboration, and creativity.

So airports serve many functions. They are very necessary, quite complex, and fascinating in numerous ways. In a straightforward concept, but a winding path, A-Maze-ing Airport Adventure shows us many of the important ways in which we interact with airports.

Watch the book’s 1-1/2-minute trailer below, and look for A-MAZE-ing Airport Adventure by Roxie Munro published by Schiffer Books on Amazon, in Hudson Booksellers in airports, and at your favorite bookstore.