Aunt Jane's Nieces Abroad by L. Frank Baum (writing as Edith Van Dyne)

With the fabulous success of his Wizard of Oz books, L. Frank Baum finally found himself financially well off. He and his wife Maud used their new wealth to take a trip overseas. On 7 April 1906 they were witnesses to a major eruption of Vesuvius. This experience becomes the background for Aunt Jane's Nieces Abroad which takes the characters to this same event and makes the novel interesting reading.

Baum portrays the three young girls and their Uncle John as nationalistic Americans, extremely proud of their culture and values, who are always making comparisons with how much worse Europeans are in all they say and do. This adds humor to the story which is basically an adventure tale that centers around the mysterious men they meet in their travels. Filled with detail from Baum's own travels, the book ends up being a cautionary tale for Americans traveling abroad.