An Educational Guide to Walt Disney World

This is a project I’ve been working on for a year now, and it’s finally ready to share.  All of my life I’ve wanted to write my own Disney guide book, but there are so many out there already.  I didn’t want to write the same things that everyone else I wrote.  But if there’s one thing I’m passionate about, it’s learning and education.  You might know that my “day job” is children’s librarian.

So one day the idea came to me to do an Educational Guide to Walt Disney World, which kids, parents, and teachers could use to make learning a fun experience.  I’d heard about other people who books with the same concept, or at least with the idea for something similar.  But none seemed exactly like what I had in mind, so I decided to go forward with it.

The Educational Guide is set up very much like a guidebook, but almost every attraction has an educational tie-in.  Some were obvious – Space Mountain has information about astronauts and outer space, and the safari has jungle animals.  Some were more difficult, but almost every ride has something of educational value to it.  For each ride I shared some interesting facts about the topic, recommended books or websites (plus a library call number so you can find information in your library!), discussion questions to get you talking, and project ideas for hands-on activities.

A screenshot of the format of my book!

I think there are a ton of ways a book like this could be used.  If a child seemed particularly interested in something, like the animals on the safari, there are resources and ideas for expanding on this interest.  If you’re waiting on line for the Little Mermaid ride, you could pull this out in e-book form and share some quick facts about the original fairy tale.  There are also bigger projects that would be great for homeschoolers, anyone really interested in something, or parents that might want a summer project to work on.

I’m also hoping that this book holds some interest for adults too, even those without kids.  I learned a lot while writing it.  I tried to make it open for a variety of ages, from the very youngest up to adults.  Some of the facts on a topic are very basic while others are more advanced.  Some projects are better for younger ones while others will be more suited towards older kids.  Not every activity and every ride will be appropriate for every child, but I hope there’s plenty to find in this book that will be good for your kids.

Publishing this was a huge step for me, because honestly – I was scared.  What if people think this is a horrible idea?  Will anyone really want this or use it?  What if all the reviews I get on Amazon are awful?  What if I don’t get any reviews at all.  But my theme for this year is confidence, so I dedicated to put it (and myself) out there and see what happens.

An Educational Guide to Walt Disney World is available in both a paperback form and an e-book.  The paperback can be found on Amazon and Create Space, while the e-book is available on Amazon.

And I have a discount code for all of you, my blog readers!  Unfortunately because of how the system works I can’t offer a discount on Amazon, but I can offer it through Create Space.  My blog readers will be able to get 35% off of the paperback version of the book with the code DLA3ZL8J.  And if you’re interested in an even better discount, make sure you sign up for my newsletter – because I’ll be sending a special discount code to them sometime next week!

What do you think of my idea for a book?  Any suggestions on other books you’d like to see me write?