10/27/2023
Gr 1–3—Readers will love learning navigational skills in this informational and funny picture book. A raccoon guide takes curious adventurers through how maps are used in everyday life. Starting out small, and then growing to large-scale ideas, the raccoon explorer teaches map reading every step of the way: from traditional maps of rooms, neighborhoods, and cities to less conventional maps that will have readers laughing out loud. This introduction to maps will have readers learning and laughing together. Early elementary school readers will be engaged as the story begins with the humorous tone of the raccoon narrator; simple explanations build upon the next map and the next, supporting readers throughout the book. Colorful and engaging illustrations bring the skills of map navigation to life. VERDICT This title will engage young readers, while teaching them valuable map reading skills; it will be useful in elementary school libraries.—Elizabeth Pelayo
★ 2023-04-24
So many places to go. How to explore them? With maps!
A cheery cartoon raccoon opens the world—i.e., a figurative foldout map—to young explorers and explains the wonderful ways maps help people navigate. In a chatty, conversational voice, the narrator explains how maps show a bird’s-eye view of a place, allow people to get where they want to go, use symbols (e.g., a compass rose, map keys), and much more. The raccoon also discusses various kinds of maps, including city and road maps, museum maps, star maps, weather maps, even maps of the inside of the body. Grown-ups, take note of the plethora of foundational skills kids can hone here, such as visual literacy, counting, color recognition, directionality, spatial concepts, and size relationships, not to mention the fun, ease, and sense of adventure they’ll experience in learning to confidently find their way about. The raccoon guide asks children frequent questions throughout, so they get ample seek-and-find opportunities while negotiating varied, easy-to-follow maps and learning from this stimulating, fact-filled book. Colorful, lively artwork does much to make the book itself a map of sorts, as spreads teach and guide youngsters in navigating and interpreting the elements of simple maps step by step. A map index concludes the volume. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A standout picture book that both entertains and teaches. (Informational picture book. 4-8)
