Last year my son spotted a very well-read (trying to be polite for scruffy and torn) book in our local library and immediately was totally engrossed with it. So he borrowed the book and kept renewing it for as long as he could. He absolutely adored this book and really did NOT want to return it. And in all honesty I really did find him week after week pouring over this book. And I could understand why he found it so fascinating so I bought him his own copy.

So I am going to share a few images and details about this book – really it is one of those books where as you page through it you wonder at how they managed to fit so much into a book and do it is such an interesting manner.

The book is 192 page long and is actually quite heavy (my son is constantly packing it into his day backpack when we are going places because he likes to look at it but it is a heavy book to carry around while you are out and about). All the pages are double page maps of the world with the information visually expressed on the map and then some detailed blocks explaining concepts on the side. This book covers a LOT, so it does not cover everything in detail, a good example would be it talks about the World Biomes on one double page – so if you know anything about Biomes, this is quite a summary, there is NO detail. But that is not the point of this book. This is not a book which you will use for a topic, this is a book that covers a lot in a fascinating visual way, that will then hopefully inspire the kids to go and read up more detail. (That is exactly what it has done / is doing with my son – the maps have prompted lots of discussion and then further reading.)

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The book is split into 6 different sections

• Land Sea and Air – Earth’s crust, mountains, volcanoes, oceans, rivers, weather, biomes……….

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• Living World – Anything to do with animals – predators, whales, sharks, deadly creatures, endangered animals, extinct animals…………..

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• People and Planet -all kind of population maps – nomads, billionaries, pollution, fossil fuels, food production…………

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• Engineering and Technology – things like air traffic, railways, tallest buildings………

• History – interesting looking at broad periods of history like Ancient wonders and Medieval empires, shipwrecks, revolutions…………..

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• Culture – art, festival, flags…………

It is an incredible way to see all these concepts, because it is a very visual portrayal of how these things have impacted our earth and our lives.  Seeing the Deadly creatures or the Bird Migrations on a map just makes more sense than reading a detailed sometimes confusing paragraph.  For kids (and adults) I think this is a great way to communicate all these facts without overcomplicating things.

My entire family thinks this is a fascinating book and it has been one of those books that starts lots of interesting discussions.  Really worth the money I spent buying it.

I bought our copy from Amazon – What’s Where in the World

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