Mission London

We've used several books from the Mission scavenger hunt series, to the extent that they've become part of our trip planning and we're disappointed if a city doesn't have a corresponding book. Mission London did exactly what we hoped, getting our kids genuinely excited about the city and engaged in our trip before we even left home. The scavenger hunt format is really clever. Instead of dragging reluctant kids through historical sites, they're actively searching for gargoyles, coats of arms, and other details they learned about in the book. The gamification element (earning points for spotting specific features) turns sightseeing into a game and an occupied kid is a happy kid, in my experience. If you're traveling with kids and want them to be engaged in what they're seeing, this series is fantastic. Highly recommended!

We used both the London and Rome books with our kids (7-10 years old) and they were both big hits. The scavenger hunt style is really engaging and helps kids stay interested. The books tend to focus on historical sites that might not be as naturally interesting for kids and helps stave off potential boredom in those places. As an adult, it helped me notice small details I likely would have overlooked as well.

We took a trip to London, but I wasn’t sure if my 8 year old son would appreciate everything we were seeing, so I bought Mission: London for him. This book was excellent! The book has many must-see places in London (not quite everywhere, but most of the places we went). My son liked searching for things that the book told him to look for. Even as we were standing in line for Westminster Abbey, he was looking for the gargoyles on the exterior! The book was great because it gave some basic information about the building and then a few interesting facts—nothing too overwhelming. The book encourages kids to engage with what they’re seeing—rather than wandering aimlessly with no idea what they’re looking at. You could use this for kids younger than 8, if you’re willing to read it and help kids find it OR if you have an older child/multiple children reading and working together. I’d say ages 8-12 are ideal. If you’re taking kids to London, this is a must have!

This is a delightful children’s adventure book that the whole family can enjoy when in London. It will keep your child (or children) engaged with a thrilling challenge to see if they have what it takes to become a spy. But adults will likely have just as much fun playing along. The individual missions in the book are clearly marked and laid out with gorgeous photographs and artwork, befitting the legendary landmarks you will likely explore while on vacation. Kids tasked with completing their missions will find themselves unwittingly learning as much as you about London’s history, culture, art, politics, geography… there’s quite a broad spectrum of education crammed within these pages, and none of it comes off as such. It all comes off as wicked fun. If schools back home were set up this way, I imagine kids would learn a lot more. It’s like teaching engineering and design by having a class build a hang glider then going out and flying one. This sexy appeal to learning makes the kids’ taking in everything about their new world with wide eyed wonder a foregone conclusion. And by interlacing the Mission London playbook with your travels you might find the added bonus that the kids will remember the trip well into adulthood; something they might not otherwise do without the anchor points provided in the text. Highly recommended for kids and parents alike. Don’t forget to load up your cell phone or tablet with this ebook before boarding the plane!

Really fun! My grandson (8 yrs old) loved looking for clues and pictures--it kept him really engaged in sightseeing. I would have loved it if there was a center map of London included--would have been nice for him to be able to reference. Also, would have liked to see more "free point" challenges as we didn't have time to visit some of the major sights that lots of point opportunities. Highly recommend. Also, size is great and its lightweight.

These travel books are an absolutely brilliant idea. Kids of all ages will love earning points to become special agents as they discover and uncover the rich history and culture of London. For parents, it will solve the problem of entertaining the kids and will truly make the trip an adventure and learning experience. These are meant as travel take-alongs, but I think they can be used in fun and educational internet searches for those not lucky enough to travel. There is a wealth of information that is interesting to read on its own. This is not a boring textbook. It is learning made into an adventure. Each page is different and the special format design, colors, pictures and fonts hold attention and pique curiosity. I highly recommend these books for family vacations and school and group tours, but local residents and those just dreaming of making the trip will enjoy these guides.

We had fun with this book in London. My 8-year-old son enjoyed reading over it before our trip, and I think it helped him to have a good amount of background knowledge and expectations for what we would be seeing. It was also great to keep him busy while we were stuck waiting in lines, telling him to read up about the place before we got inside. My husband might have enjoyed checking things off inside the book even more than my son did. In the end, we didn't always follow through on looking for everything mentioned in the book or going to all of those places, but it was the perfect kid-friendly way to prepare for our trip and a good thing to have to pull out when we had a slow moment. Also, it is light-weight enough to carry around in a day pack without any trouble.

A great book, we used this on a family vacation. It ended up being our #1 guide to London. It had lots of great info and the kids were really motivated and excited to explore and learn more about the city. Great size, it's not too big, it fits in a bag and is light enough to carry around. My only piece of feedback would be to include a map in future editions. We've used these books for other cities too and will definitely use it again if we go somewhere new.

Not even a book I didn't like it at all

This is the second book in the series I have read by Catherine Aragon. The first was Mission Washington which was just as engaging. Having been born and brought up in London, I was curious to read the latest excellent guidebook with a spy twist for children to use and accomplish missions when exploring London. It is brilliantly illustrated and helps to bring both the sights and history of London alive. As a child I’d have loved this! The premise is built around sets of missions and scavenger hunts for your children to carry out, with an engaging way of combining London’s tourist attractions with a thrilling challenge. The book sets tasks throughout and if they complete enough of them they can then become a Secret International Agency (SIA) Special Agent. I particularly loved the James Bond connection. I downloaded Mission London to Kindle on my iPad, the graphics are excellent and having shown the book to the younger members of my family they are now demanding a trip to London!

We bought the Florence and Amsterdam versions of this excellent series before as a surprise for our daughter when making trips abroad. These were unexpected successes and worked really well; it made her visits to the Uffizi and the Rijksmuseum, otherwise torturous to young children, a much more exciting and memorable experience and at the same time it didn’t totally emerge her i.e. it left lots of room for interaction. Also in those cases it helped us as parents to plan and schedule our trip. We live in London so we’ll have plenty of opportunity to complete the different parts of the book. The puzzles and setting is generally entertaining and challenging while there is a material educational element as well. Highly recommended to families with young children aged 7 to 11. Although her younger 5-year old brother liked to help out with most of the challenges as well, like finding statues and details in paintings.

My 9 year old son enjoyed it. We got both the mission London and Mission Paris books. Both books got my kids engaged in the activity. We went to many museums and the book made it more fun for them.