Are you raising a map-loving kid? Does your kid obsess over the GPS in the car or play with Google Maps like it is a game? Maps are magical, and kids often see that magic more than parents do. Maps open up the possibility of adventure in far-away places. Maps tell stories of places that are imaginary or right in your own town.
Here are 15 books for kids who love maps
Great Maps
The world’s finest maps explored and explained. From Ptolemy’s world map to the Hereford’s Mappa Mundi, through Mercator’s map of the world to the latest maps of the Moon and Google Earth, Great Maps provides a fascinating overview of cartography through the ages.
Revealing the stories behind 55 historical maps by analyzing graphic close-ups, Great Maps also profiles key cartographers and explorers to look why each map was commissioned, who it was for and how they influenced navigation, propaganda, power, art, and politics.
Great City Maps
A beautifully illustrated history of the world’s most celebrated historical city maps, from the hubs of ancient civilization to sprawling modern mega-cities, created in association with the Smithsonian Institution.
Great City Maps explores and explains 30 of the world’s greatest historical city maps, providing a captivating overview of cartography through the ages. The book’s unrivaled reproduction of these fascinating and intricate documents provides graphic close-ups and reveals more than just pure geography—it offers insight into the cultures and beliefs of the great civilizations that gave rise to them. From classical cities like Rome and Jerusalem to modern hubs like New York and Tokyo, the stories behind each map are revealed: why it was created, who it was intended for, and how it was achieved. Profiles of key cartographers, planners, and artists give even further insight into the history of each urban masterpiece.
Maps
Travel the world without leaving your living room.
This book of maps is a visual feast for readers of all ages, with lavishly drawn illustrations from the incomparable Mizielinskis. It features not only borders, cities, rivers, and peaks, but also places of historical and cultural interest, eminent personalities, iconic animals and plants, cultural events, and many more fascinating facts associated with every region of our planet.
The 50 States Activity Book
Pack your bags and take the journey of a lifetime with this activity book packed with maps, wildlife, people and places unique to America’s 50 states. As a summer companion title to The 50 States, activities include state trivia, picture scrambles, dot-to-dots, plus a double-sided fold-out map and more than 50 stickers.
The 50 States: Explore the U.S.A.
Be inspired by the inventiveness, beauty and diversity of the United States. In this curious collection of fact-filled maps. Explore thousand of wondrous locations and be awed by the achievements of hundreds of people who helped make America what it is today. Celebrate, explore, enjoy!
Maps Activity Book
Informative and imaginative activities for young explorers everywhere.
Following the best-selling Maps, the Mizielinskis return with a companion activity book. Bursting with fascinating facts and puzzles from around the world, this book offers hours of entertainment to young adventurers. Informative and inspiring, the myriad activities in this book challenge the reader to discover something new and explore their imagination to draw, decorate and design on every pull-out page.
Me On The Map
Illustrated in full color. In this playful introduction to maps and geography, step by simple step, a young girl shows readers herself on a map of her room, her room on the map of her house, her house on the map of her street–all the way to her country on a map of the world. Once the reader is familiar with the maps, she demonstrates how readers can find their own country, state, and town–all the way back to their room–on each colorful map. Easy-to-read text, bright artwork, and charming details give children a lot to search for and will have them eager to help navigate on the next family vacation.
Map: Exploring the World
300 stunning maps from all periods and from all around the world, exploring and revealing what maps tell us about history and ourselves.
Map: Exploring the World brings together more than 300 fascinating maps from the birth of cartography to cutting-edge digital maps of the twenty-first century. The book’s unique arrangement, with the maps organized in complimentary or contrasting pairs, reveals how the history of our attempts to make flat representations of the world has been full of beauty, ingenuity and innovation.
The Little Man In the Map
Learning all 50 U.S. states is easy when you learn from The Little Man In the Map!Asked by their teacher to find clues for memorizing the states, students begin to see images-a hat, a shirt, a pair of boots-formed by state boundaries. When they put some of them together, they’re amazed to find the outline of a man standing in the middle of the map. Excited by their discovery, they draw a face and arms on him and create The Little Man In the Map, whom they nickname MIM. Their imaginations bring MIM alive, and with his help they discover the surprising roles all the states can play. Soon they can spot the elf, the playful dog, the spooky head, and all the others. This imaginatively illustrated story, narrated in rhyme by The Little Man In the Map, shows each state’s part in its region and how it interacts with those around it. This makes learning their locations visual, easy, and fun.
My Map Book
In each spread of this bold and humorous picture book, children can examine their place in the world around them through detailed and engaging maps that are drawn from a child’s perspective. Twelve beautifully illustrated maps such as Map of My Day and Map of My Family will fascinate children, teaching both about mapping and autobiography. When finished reading the book, children can unfold the jacket—it turns into a poster-size map!
There’s a Map on My Lap!
The Cat in the Hat introduces beginning readers to maps–the different kinds (city, state, world, topographic, temperature, terrain, etc.); their formats (flat, globe, atlas, puzzle); the tools we use to read them (symbols, scales, grids, compasses); and funny facts about the places they show us (“Michigan looks like a scarf and a mitten! Louisiana looks like a chair you can sit in!”).
Follow That Map!
Maps are about far more than getting from a to b. Maps can help children understand and explore both their everyday environment and faraway places. With an appealing search-and-find technique, Follow That Map! is an interactive picture book that explains and demonstrates key mapping concepts. Kids will enjoy following Sally and her friends as they search for Max and Ollie, a mischievous dog and cat on the lam from the backyard. Sally and friends take an imaginative trip through the neighborhood, city and country, around the world and beyond.
Kids can join in the search for Max and Ollie, who are hiding somewhere in every map. An activity at the end of the book shows children how to make a map of their bedroom.
National Geographic Kids Beginner’s World Atlas
Jam packed with the latest data, bright, bold images, large maps, a brand-new design, and lively information about the world’s land, people, and animals, the third edition Beginner’s World Atlas will be the most up-to-date world reference for kids ages 5–8. True to National Geographic’s reputation and legacy, we’ve created this atlas with the same care and attention to detail as our renowned adult atlases. “No one does maps or atlases with as much panache and knowledge as National Geographic,” said the Washington Post.
Interactive 3-D Maps: American History
Help students make the connection between key historical events, geography, and people with this collection of diorama-like maps. Each map highlights an important route in history, such as the Mayflower’s voyage, Lewis and Clark’s exploration, the Trail of Tears, the Transcontinental Railroad, and more. Students manipulate movable pieces across the maps to bolster their learning.
City Atlas: Travel the World
Take a tour of Toronto, look around Lisbon or hot-foot it to Helsinki with this global adventure in a book! 30 best-loved cities from around the world are brought to life with illustrations by Martin Haake, which show in fabulous detail key landmarks, famous people, iconic buildings and cultural icons for all the family to enjoy. A search-and-find game on every page helps young readers to explore every city and spot the hundreds of details that makes each place unique.
