With a writer mom, my kids never had a chance: They had to love reading from the minute they were born. Luckily, they took to books like a pig takes to mud, and now a lot of our family time consists of sitting together on our family room sectional, each absorbed in our own book.

So how can you get your kids addicted to books? Travel’s a perfect vehicle (please forgive the pun) – or at least, so I’ve found with my two. Given the amount that we travel (often several weeks a year, and at least a couple of weekends a month), the reading bug has come in super-handy for my girls, both because they have a way to entertain themselves in transit and because they can learn all about the places we’re going before we ever get there.

Credit: Barnes & Noble

Before you leave home, hit the library and check out two kinds of books: travel guides and kids’ books set in your destination. If your kids are old enough, have them flip through the travel guides (many are written specifically for kids) and put sticky notes on the stuff that sounds interesting to them (in our family, Abby gets purple stickies, and Zoe opts for pink), then discuss their choices at the dinner table. If they’re not yet strong readers, you can be in charge of the stickies, but the kids can still check out the photos and captions and discuss. One note of caution: To avoid meltdowns at your destination, be sure you pick a guide updated within the last year or two.

On the way to your destination, tote along kids’ fiction that’s set in the city or area where you’ll be next. “Eloise” is a great choice if you’re headed to New York; “The Cable Car and the Dragon” is perfect for kids visiting San Francisco. Kids will love getting a child’s–eye view of the place, and they’ll spend hours comparing their experiences to the one described in the book.

While you’re there, see the sights, and ask each child to read aloud from the travel guide to the rest of the family about what they’re seeing and doing. Talk about whether the place they’re seeing is how they envisioned it after reading the descriptions.

When you get home, log onto a popular review site like yelp.com or tripadvisor.com and ask the kids to help you compose reviews about what they’ve seen. A reading bonus? Have them read the other reviews on the site, then talk about whether they agree or disagree with the feedback others have left.