Notes from a Traveling Childhood:
Reading for Internationally Mobile Parents and Children

Edited by Karen Curnow McCluskey

Reviewed by Michael Ann Dean

Yes, there is a section, "Portraits of the Travelers," that contains writings by current and former expatriate children. I especially liked the poignant title piece by Sara Mansfield Taber longing for her missing American home, Ursula Lindsey's nostalgia for Rome, and Anders Lundahl's practical advice about fitting in. What interesting and insightful children this lifestyle produces! But it was the first part of the book, "The Overview," that was most enlightening. I found myself thinking, "I wish I'd known that," or "I never thought about it that way" while reading the article by the editor, "The Expatriate Parent: Issues and Options for Internationally Mobile Parents." I had always assumed that living successfully in an overseas environment had meant primarily dealing with another culture. Ms. McCluskey points out, however, that many other factors, including the changing rank of the employee, employment issues for the spouse, the length of the tour of duty (the transients, the short-termers, and those in it for the long haul), and the nature of the "business" (diplomatic, military, missionary or private business) play important and sometimes overriding roles in the overseas experience for the whole family. This section also contains common sense advice about helping children adjust to this lifestyle—as well as some wonderful advice from kids to kids. ("Be careful because your parents go crazy...When we get ready to pack out, my mom gets meaner than a snake. I'm prepared for that.")

"Traveling Childhood" should definitely be part of the resource library of anyone attached to internationally mobile children.

Note: This book is published by the Foreign Service Youth Foundation, a private, non-profit organization, founded in 1989 to provide information, advocacy, and outreach programs for the internationally mobile youth of all U.S. foreign affairs agencies. FSYF offers social and educational programs, publications and videos, internships, and community service awards to youth and their parents in the Washington, DC area as well as at foreign posts abroad. To order the book, send $10.50, plus $3.00 for APO/pouch postage ($7.00 for international postage)to

Michael Ann Dean is a former CLO, former staff member in FLO, and current battler against ovarian cancer.

© 1994 ISBN: 0965853810 $5.95

Foreign Service Youth Foundation

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