Josh Gad is best known for voicing lovable snowman Olaf in Disney’s “Frozen,” but at home, he plays a very different role: that of an overly enthusiastic travel planner and book evangelist for his daughters. The actor and father recently partnered with Kindle Kids to encourage summer reading – something he admits has become a small miracle in his own household.
Fresh off a family trip to Malta, Gad spoke with USA TODAY about his mission to raise curious, engaged readers, how he navigates family travel with a jam-packed itinerary, and why his Kindle is currently filled with historical nonfiction and literary classics. Along the way, he reveals his go-to vacation splurges, travel pet peeves, and the moment he realized his kids had started choosing books over screens – on their own.
The following interview was edited for length and clarity.
What prompted you to partner with Kindle Kids?
Josh Gad: When we travel, it’s a very difficult thing to pack a bunch of heavy (books), and so when this technology presented itself, it was a no-brainer. You know, my wife and I, in general, are people who want them to – if they’re going to use technology – for it to be technology we can get behind.
… You engage with reading, you know, the Book Crew, which is something that comes with signing up. It’s just a really fun opportunity for younger kids to utilize, to be part of something that gives them a sense of community, and it was really engaging for them. We just got back from Malta, and… I’m the worst person to travel with when it comes to my family because I push, push – we get up at like 6 a.m., and we don’t stop going until like 10 p.m. It’s always like, “Gotta go see history!”
But there were times when it was super hot, and so there was one day in particular when we got back to the room, and I was so impressed because I do basically “free time” for my daughters. And they could have easily turned on their iPads to watch something, and they started reading books. My wife and I just looked at each other, and we were like: “This is a miracle.” … The fact that our kids are voluntarily choosing to do this is like everything you could hope for as a parent.
You just got back from Malta, what other family trips do you have planned for the summer?
JG: We’re gonna go again (to Europe) later this summer, and we are still deciding which country we’re gonna go to. I always like to go places I’ve never been. But I also love return trips. Italy is the favorite out of ours – my wife is Italian and that’s where we go more often than not.
But we’re going to try new places this summer. We’re thinking about Croatia, Switzerland, maybe Austria or Germany – giving the kids a sense of culture, a sense of appreciation for, as I said before, history and art.
Those are the kinds of trips we love the most because it’s entertainment – we try to make it a really fun experience while, in the process, giving them the ability to learn something new.
For instance, in Malta – I had never been before, and I’m a history buff – and being able to walk my daughter through these ancient medieval fortified walls, or bring them to a Neolithic temple … and sort of walk them through this written history where everybody from the Phoenicians to the Arabs to the Knights of Malta have all been present, it was really … cool to engage with them in a methodology of learning where you’re actually walking in the footsteps of ancient cultures.
And seeing their eyes light up – we went to this place called the Hypogeum, a 6,000-year-old burial site for the Neolithic community that lived there – and to look at them and go, “Guys, this is older than the Great Pyramid, this is older than Stonehenge,” and see them engaged in a way that is really cool.
You sound like a very go-go-go traveler. What’s your family’s – or your own – travel pet peeve?
JG: I don’t like when I do (a beach destination); I then need to do something else because I feel like I’ve wasted my vacation … I feel like being idle is like a wasted opportunity of travel.
I’m a consumer. I love to consume information – obviously food, but I love to consume culture, knowledge, music, history. So, like, I get travel FOMO (fear of missing out). And what I mean by that is when I’m in a place, and I don’t see it all, I get FOMO.
So, much to the chagrin of my wife and my daughters, they have to suffer some of the consequences of my curiosity.
They are always like, “Can we please do a day where we do nothing?” And I’m like, “It depends on how many more days we have!”
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What do you tend to splurge on during your travels?
JG: I’m never more alive than when I’m out on the open water. I think that’s the byproduct of being born in South Florida and being raised by the ocean.
One of my favorite things to do is get out and explore a new area by water. So, oftentimes, we go to Lake Como (in Italy) or to many of the great lakes in Lago Maggiore or Lago d’Orta, and we will always rent a boat and explore the perimeters of these beautiful regions.
Similarly, when we go down south to Positano or Malta or Capri, we do the same. So, everywhere we go that has either a lake or Mediterranean coast or an ocean – whatever it is – if we’re in proximity to water, I’ll charter a boat. We’ll be on the water at some point. That’s my big splurge. That’s usually where I drop the most money, and my wife will go, “Are you nuts?” And I’ll say, “Yes – but think about the memories.”
I also love to splurge on good food. I love when my daughters are in a different culture and eat the cuisine of that culture. We’re very adamant about not doing chicken fingers and burgers. You will eat what the people of this region eat. And sometimes they won’t enjoy it – but as long as they try things, we’re happy.
So we try to take them to meals that are influenced by the region we’re visiting.
What’s on your Kindle reading list right now?
JG: I love early reading nonfiction or historical fiction. One of my favorite authors is Erik Larson. I love “In the Garden of Beasts” and “The Splendid and the Vile.”
I’ve also been absolutely the biggest fan of a young author named Madeline Miller, who wrote “The Song of Achilles” – they’re sort of Greek mythology-influenced books.
And now I’m doing something very interesting – I’m actually having a summer of classics.
I really don’t remember “The Odyssey” or “The Iliad,” and maybe it’s the presence of one of the upcoming movies that’s piqued my curiosity. So I’m going back and revisiting some of the greats.
I’ve never read “Moby Dick” – that is on my list. I’m going back and reading “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” and “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” because my daughters have never read them and did not know who Mark Twain was. And I was like, “This is outrageous.”
So, it’s an ambitious summer, for sure. But I’m excited to check off some books that I otherwise never got around to reading.
This story was updated to fix a typo.