Fun with 50 States is part nonfiction, part activity book covering the 50 states and US territories. Each state has a two page spread, including a paragraph with information about the state, two activities, and a fact box with basic information about the state, including a state flag. The book is fully illustrated. The activities seem to rely very heavily on word searches. Others include word scrambles, fill in the blank, messages to decode, coloring, spot the differences, and more.

Thank you to Zeitgeist for gifting me with an ARC to review! All opinions are my own.

Whether you’re heading out on a train, plane or automobile adventure with your children across the beautiful United States of America or just want to educate them about the wonders of our diverse culture from ocean to ocean and border to border, “Fun With 50 States—A Big Activity Book for Kids about the Amazing United States,” by Nicole Claesen is a powerhouse of fascinating facts, fun interactive educational content, and colorful illustrations to capture the imagination and stimulate creativity—all while simultaneously teaching youngsters essential factoids about our county.

Presented alphabetically, and including both states and territories (with explanations comparing and contrasting each), “Fun” is chock-full of interesting exercises ranging from mazes, word scrambles, word searches, fill-in-the-blanks, color the pictures, and so much more creative content to keep young minds occupied for hours while learning important information about the history and cultural heritage of each state, region and territory of the United States.

JoyReaderGirl1 graciously thanks NetGalley, Author Nicole Claesen, Illustrator Candela Fernandez, and Publisher Z Kids, an imprint of Zeitgeist, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York, for this advanced reader’s copy (ARC) for review.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with this book in exchange for my review! All opinions are my own.

This book was a cute read that teaches children about the 50 states. The author does this in. both a fun and educational way. This is a great book for teachers and librarians to add to their collections. It will also help children learn about social studies and geography which is very important.

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A totally unexpected good read!
This is the book I would've loved to have as a kid! It has basic information to fun facts. Activities include crosswords, coloring, tracing, and more! Very Engaging.

This was a good read for me and my kids. We enjoyed learning about the states and working on the activities. Thank you for a copy

This is an enjoyable book for all ages! My children and I had fun learning more about the different states. I look forward to getting a hard copy of this one!

This was such a fun book. My ten-year-old loved it! And it was perfect for him as he's in fourth grade and currently studying the states in history. I will definitely be purchasing this in physical form so my son can do the activities himself.

I absolutely love this book and recommend it to families. It is great for learning and fun travel experiences. It would be a great family experience to have this book along if you want to visit any of the parks throughout the United States. It is a great tie-in and fun activity too while helping teach and get energized for the visit while even making the trip a little less "are we there yet"! There are many places to visit in the United States. This book highlights many of them. It is designed as a travel activity book for youth 6 to 10, but it is wonderful for the family. It is also great to have this book to prepare for the trip and get excited about an upcoming adventure.

A book that is great for while travelling or for just learning about the United States. There is information and an activity for each state and territory. A great find for curious little minds.

What a fun book for students or families who are traveling! Learn about each state and US territory with fun facts and information related to each area in our country. As you learn, participate in puzzles, games and other activities to boost your understanding and learning about the US states.

My husband is a huge history and geography buff, so when I saw this book combining an atlas with activities, I couldn't pass it up! Obviously, being from the Dairy State, the first thing I did was flip to the pages dedicated to Wisconsin and I was immediately greeted with...

COWS. I love it.

Word searches, word scrambles, crosswords, matching games and more!

This book expertly combines fun with learning, with a new puzzle to solve on every page! Learn capitals, state flowers, birds, populations, etc. Which I know, I personally, loved finding out as a kid! Seriously - do yourself (and your kids a favor) and order this book!

A fun book for kids to have them learn about the country they live in and do fun activities at the same time. Fun for road trips where they are visiting new places. Book seems to work better not as an ebook.

This is an interesting book to learn about the fifty states. I could see it being a good book for a family road-trip so that the child could learn about the state they are visiting. I would say that this book is appropriate for the ages advertised though the information is quite brief for ten year olds.

Nicole Claesen’s Fun with 50 States is dedicated to the author’s “travel partners”—her three sons-- and to “all the future travelers out there.” Claesen introduces each of the 50 states in alphabetical order after first having explained that each state has its own government, governor, and borders that define its position within the United States as a whole. Each state entry begins with a picture of the state flag and a short paragraph describing special features of that state. For example, the four-sentence description of Alabama includes two sentences about the world’s largest space museum in Huntsville, a sentence about the Talladega Superspeedway, and a sentence pointing out a little-known bit of trivia. Each state entry also includes a short fact list: capital, population, geographic region, date of statehood, state flower, state bird, and state nickname. The creative parent or grandparent could use many of these tidbits of information to quiz the kids, perhaps having a competition among siblings.

As the cover indicates, the book is geared for ages 6-10, and that most likely explains the entries’ brevity, even shallowness. For instance, Oklahoma is described as having a “long, rich” Native American history and as today having 35 tribal headquarters as well as museums and “learning centers.” While this is true, the reference to “long, rich” history struck me as, at best, euphemistic. No mention is made of the Trail of Tears and the other forced removals of Native Americans from their homelands so white settlers could have those lands.

Because of this brevity, there is no consistency in the paragraphs from state to state. Although the author includes fun facts, they are random facts, with some states such as Colorado, Delaware, Georgia, Louisiana, Kansas, Minnesota, New Hampshire, and Texas including an explanation of the state name’s origin while others such as Florida, Kentucky, Michigan, Mississippi, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, and Vermont have no such explanation despite having commonly available name origins

Following the states, Claesen includes brief sections Washington, D.C. and on the U.S. territories: American Samoa, Guam, Northern Marian Islands, Puerto Rico, and U.S. Virgin Islands. Although the book title doesn’t lead readers to expect the territories, they are a nice addition.

A variety of activities that kids can complete as they travel or at home in their free time appear at various places withing each entry. These activities range from word searches, dot-to-dot puzzles, mazes, and coloring pictures to somewhat greater challenges such as completing crosswords, unscrambling scrambled words, and making new words from a state’s name such as Connecticut. An answer key appears in the back of the book.
All in all, this is a fun book that should appeal to the target age group members, especially as they travel. I wish the description length might have been doubled to enhance learning for the older children in the age group.

Thanks to NetGalley and Z Kids/Zeitgeist/Penguin Random House for providing a digital copy.

As advertised, it was quite fun! Each state gets a two-page spread, starting with a paragraph with the highlights about each state, plus a facts box listing each capital, population, state motto, state bird, etc. and of course the accompanying puzzles and activities. Even I learned a few facts I didn't already know (did you know the Everglades is the only place in the world with both crocodiles and alligators?? Or that Oklahoma City is equidistant to both LA and NYC?) so it will definitely teach young children a lot about our country with engaging activities along the way!

Fun with 50 States includes state information such as it’s capital, population, date of state, state flower, bird, flag, and nickname.
It even teaches a few words of Hawaiian!
I’m very happy that this book included US territories and a few words Spanish etc.
There are so many fun activities like codes, connect the dots, find the difference, word searches, mazes, crosswords, and lots of pictures to colour..
This book may be intended for kids and I may be an adult, but I thought it was cute and enjoyed it so much reading in the UK as I find we don’t learn enough about other languages and other countries.
My nephews are 5 and 7 and can’t wait to visit more states soon with the family.
Thank you netgalley for the arc in exchange for my review

Very simple and entertaining! I like how the illustrations and activities are accompanied by relevant information :). It's a really good book for English learners and children.

Fun with 50 States is like a history and geography class disguised as an activity book for kids! This BIG activity book teaches young readers about everything you can imagine from inventions to history, food and geography, popular destinations, iconic landmarks, and even national parks. The easy-to-read format allows young readers to quickly compare one state to another.

With over 50 different activities, Fun with 50 States offers young readers hours of entertainment on the go—and learning, without that feeling of actually being in school. Kids can jump from state to state, through coloring pages, word scrambles, connect the dots, code-breaker puzzles, seek and finds, matching puzzles, so much more! There’s even an answer key in the back of the book in case you’re worried. Fun with 50 States is an absolute must-buy for your next road trip (or flight)!

There is not a ton of content within this book. Each state has a few pages and puzzles. It is more of a fun activity book for then car more than a resource for reading and learning.

What a fun book to do while learning more about the 50 States. We are doing the 50 states with my kids and this is a perfect addition. I especially liked that each state did not have the same type of pages to do. There were a variety of different activities to do throughout the book: coloring, word search, codes to crack, dot-to-dot, fill-in-the-blanks, and many more. If you want some fun activities for your kiddos while they learn more about the state this is a great book to get!