Customer Reviews

Maps and Globes (Reading Rainbow Book)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Colorful, fun way to introduce Map and Globe reading and understanding. It covers the history of maps, and uses. Advanced concepts like debth and elevatons are discussed. It looks at different uses maps have, and leaves the student wanting to discover more on their own. A very usful tool in teaching basic geography.

Written for 7-10 year olds, this colorful book introduces young readers to the basics of maps and globes, such as a map's uses, direction, the equator, scale, legends, latitude, longitude, elevation and the difference between physical and political maps. Illustrations are simple, colorful and informative.

Well done.

This book is a great resource to use when teaching a unit about Map Skills! I've used this in my 2nd grade classroom and it was successful! The language is very child-friendly and easy to understand! The illustrations are wonderful! A great addition to my Map Skills unit!

I bought this title to help introduce my son to map skills. It is very informative and written at a child's level; I am quite pleased with that aspect of the book. The one problem I have with it is that it repeats the legend that everyone thought the earth was flat up until 500 years ago, when Columbus and Magellan finally proved otherwise (see pp. 6-11). Though we probably all heard that one while growing up (I certainly did) it has been debunked (see the book _Inventing the Flat Earth_). The ancient Greeks first figured out that the earth was round when they noted that it casts a round shadow on the moon during an eclipse and that ships seem to move downward as they disappear over the horizon. By Columbus' time all learned people actually knew the earth was round; they only disputed his theory that traveling west rather than east would prove to be a "shortcut" to the Indies.

Anyway, I just wanted to warn parents about that bit of misinformation since none of the other reviewers mention it. It's actually understandable since the book is copyright 1985; AFAIK the research debunking the "Everyone was a flat earther until five centuries ago" notion was done after that. Still, there's a lot of good information about maps otherwise so you may still wish to use the book and just explain the error or skip over those pages.

This was a great book to explain maps, where they came from, etc. It is for children 2nd grade and up, and can be rather detailed at times. For younger children and a fasster read I would recommend "Me On The Map".

While written for youth, this is a very good introduction to maps. It is especially useful because it informs young readers that maps are not always accurate. The historic discussion helps to bring students to the present in terms of how maps, in general, evolved. Comparison of globes and flat maps is very instructive. I would have
said more about the utility of Mercator and similar maps (especially rhumb lines, shortest distances), but the Greenland/South America discussion is on target. I would have included another map -- the Western and Eastern Hemisphere and related cartographic data to Old and New World -- it introduces what young students will learn in later classes. Measurement on maps is effectively dealt with, but it is important to distinguish
the 'naturalness' of the Equator from the 'arbitrariness' of the Prime Meridian. Nice coverage of South America, but it might be more useful to put the pair of maps opposite each other. Authors should avoid referring to the land area as 'dry' land. It could be confusing. Imre Sutton, retired prof., geography, Cal. State Univ., Fullerton.

This is a wonderful book for teaching about maps and globes in a simple, fun and colorful way. The text is a nice large size which makes it easy to read. The age level is 7-10 but I am sure my five year old will enjoy it. This is a wonderful book used with Geography A-Z as part of My Fathers World curriculum. Neat stuff. Enjoy the book and go ahead and get both of them together and save on shipping if you can.

Good book for introducing maps, globes and history of map making. It includes a few simple activities which should encourage readers to further research with maps, globes, atlases and at the library. However, the book would be greatly improved by a glossary defining all the italicized words in the book.

Good product. I purchased it for my grandsons and my daughter likes the contents.