Be Your Own Map Expert

School Library Journal

Gr 3-6-This clearly written guide provides all the information youngsters need for any map-making occasion, including how to make new drawings look old and mysterious. Using readily available materials (pencils, string, rulers, paper), readers will have hours of enjoyment creating bird's-eye views of familiar objects, mazes, diagrams of furniture arrangements, neighborhood grids, and sketches based on computer games. Scale drawing, relief and contour maps, keys and symbols, grids, latitude and longitude, time zones, globes and projections, atlases, historical and modern methods of cartography, and using a compass are among the topics covered. There is a good balance of text and illustration in an appealing layout. The hands-on approach provides a good complement to Jack Knowlton's Maps and Globes (Crowell, 1985). Gail Hartman's As the Crow Flies (Bradbury, 1991) is for primary-grade audiences.- Eunice Weech, M.L. King Elementary School, Urbana, IL

Carolyn Phelan

A colorful introduction to maps and mapmaking, this fully illustrated book includes short chapters on maps, measurement and scale, contours, symbols, grids, compasses, latitude and longitude, globes, and mapmaking past and present. While the layout is somewhat crowded and occasionally the text seems cursory, the presentation is logical, and the suggested activities look practical and enjoyable. The discussion of grids, for example, explains how to use them to divide maps and locate points of reference. The main illustration shows a pirate's treasure map with and without grids, while a smaller painting indicates how Marshall Islanders once used sticks and shells to map the ocean. A useful source of ideas, particularly for the many teachers exploring maps in their classrooms.