After more than a decade of planning, John Higham and his wife September bid their high-tech jobs and suburban lives good-bye, packed up their home, and set out with their two children, ages eight and eleven, to travel around the world. In the course of the next 52 weeks, they crossed 24 time zones, visited 28 countries, and experienced a lifetime of adventures.
Making their way around the workd, the Highams discovered more than just different foods and cultures; they also learned such diverse things as a Chilean mall isn't the best place to get your ears pierced, and that elephants appreciate flowers just as much as the next person. But most importantly, they learned about each other, and just how much a family can weather if they do it together.
While this wasn't a book I would have selected myself (I'm not a memoir kind of gal), I am glad that I read it. I am a travel enthusiast, and I was instantly intrigued with the idea of taking a year away from "life" to explore the globe. I was also curious about how this would work traveling with such young children. When we travel, we can barely make it to Seiling, OK (35 miles) without stopping for bathroom breaks, snacks, drinks, etc. I would NEVER consider even a cross-neighborhood bicycle ride with my children, much less one that would take me across several continents. I have to give it to the Highams, they have some cojones!!
Unfortunately for me, this book doesn't hit the five-star mark. The most memorable aspect of the entire novel was the comedic tone and wit that emanates from the author's voice. Higham is remarkably humorous (who knew rocket scientists had a sense of humor?) and relates his tales with such hilarity that I frequently found myself laughing out loud. He weaves journals from his family members into his own narrative, providing the reader with a multi-dimensional view of the family's adventures. A true scientist, Higham utilizes Google Earth to provide the reader with an opportunity to share in his family's travels. By accessing Google Earth, the reader is able to locate each destination along the way, view photographs of every stop, and learn a little more about the world. While I thought this was an incredible concept, I was unable to get the application to work, and within 15 minutes of struggling with it, I lost interest and just wanted to read.
Pinpointing exactly why I didn't care for the book is somewhat difficult. Obviously, it is a memoir, so there is no true conflict or climax, but I really found the book to drag on in places and to be a bit too repetitive. Travel, tour, pack, repeat. After a while, I found myself merely skimming the pages...blah, blah, blah. It just wasn't very exciting.
I also found myself questioning the believability of the book. The children never seemed to bicker, the adults never required "alone time," and everything between Higham and his wife was just too.... perfect? At one point in the book, Higham becomes lost in a strange country, only to find that his wife has left signs posted all about town, giving him directions back to their hotel. Really? This was just a little too hard for me to swallow.
What I did like about this book was that it validated my reasons for leading student travel groups. Higham clearly understands that reading about an event in a book or watching a Hollywood re-enactment simply does not compare to having your feet planted firmly on the ground where the event took place.
"We had been reading about the 1944 invasion as part of the kids' homework, but there was a difference between holding a book in your hand and walking in and through the bunkers, foxholes, and decrepit equipment. Even though more than six decades had passed, somehow there was an echo of the thundering bombs and a whiff of gunpowder that was palpable in the otherwise serene landscape."
All criticism aside, I applaud John and September (his wife) for their adventurous spirit. I cannot imagine walking away from my life for 365 days to circumnavigate the globe with my children. Given the opportunity to take on such a quest, I would have selected Paris, Rome, Berlin, Shanghai, Sydney, and Dublin. Sleeping in a tent and slumming it in third-world countries would not have happened, and I never would have left my children alone in aiports or sent them to the top of the Eiffel Tower alone! Obviously the Higham family has a hippie mentality that I have yet to embrace, but that is just fine with me!
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