You can be an armchair traveler by reading some great books we have in the library and then visit some cool sites in New York City and Long Island to get a feel for the settings of the books.
One of my favorite areas of Manhattan is downtown -- and it also happens to be the perfect place for a staycation! You can visit Italy, Ireland and China within a few subway stops.
Henry and the Kite Dragon by Bruce Edward Hall tells the story of children from Chinatown who argue with the children from Little Italy for throwing rocks at the beautiful kites Grandfather Chin makes, not realizing that they have a reason for doing so. Go to Little Italy and have lunch. I like Puglia's (pronounced poo-lia's) -- try the fried zucchini, it's the best!
In Chinatown find a street vendor that sells little round pancakes that taste like fortune cookies. My dad would always buy them for me when I was a kid.
Susan Campbell Bartoletti's Black Potatoes: The Story of the Great Irish Famine does a fantastic job of bringing this tragedy to life and Battery Park has it's own
Irish Hunger Memorial where you can get a feel for Ireland by winding your way though plants native to Ireland and the ruins of a stone cottage.
Metropolitan Museum of Art is so fun and has so much to see, my favorite place is the Temple of Dendur. There are probably hundreds of books you could associate with the Met. Here are just a few:
A Nickel, A Trolley, A Treasure House by Sharon Reiss Baker
From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg
Museum Shapes and Museum ABC
You Can't Take a Balloon into the Metropolitan Museum by Jacqueline Preiss Weitzman
Read a biography of Teddy Roosevelt and then visit his "summer White House" in Oyster Bay, Sagamore Hill. (Or read the very funny biography of his daughter, What to do About Alice?: How Alice Roosevelt Broke the Rules, Charmed the World, and Drove Her Father Teddy Crazy! by Barbara Kerley)
Take a stroll across the Brooklyn Bridge then take a rest and read Twenty-one Elephants and Still Standing : A Story of P.T. Barnum and the Brooklyn Bridge by April Jones Prince