Customer Reviews

National Geographic Student Atlas of the World Third Edition (National Geographic Student Atlas of the World (Quality))

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I bought this world atlas for my kid and I am slightly disappointed by the quality of the maps, especially the physical maps. I saw many world map albums and usually mountains are marked in different shades of red depending on elevation, not here. In this world atlas for some strange reasons mountains are sometimes showed in blue, sometimes in red - depending on the map, with no any particular reason...often mountains are hard to distinguish at all.

Some of the maps have not very good resolution and should be smaller and more of them since they do not show too many features. So, there are two choices - either the authors should show more smaller maps or more features on bigger maps. For instance the political map of South America which takes the whole page shows only few cities in Brazil and does not even show Amazon river so it is hard to read.

On the other hand the atlas contains lots of information about many aspects of life in different countries, updated with the newest events - like globalization and European Union.

With the ease of fact finding on the internet these days, sometimes we overlook the usefulness of actually having an actual book like an atlas on hand. This student atlas eliminates the need for continued back and forth searches and comparisons of several countries statistics and facts. For example, if the student is interested in taking a look at the climate of North America and its precipitation statistics, it is very easy to assimilate a lot of material when there are side-by-side maps and sidebars describing them. A young person can do more of his or her own thinking rather than having instant results.

In the front of the book there are fifty-two pages of instructional and current factual material that includes a very basic orientation of Earth in the solar system, the Earth's physical systems, and "human systems" (politics, population, languages, religion, etc.). Each continent is then dealt with in some detail with numerous maps, informative sidebars and some interesting vignettes. For example, there is a page that talks about the protected areas in Africa. There is a sidebar with "Facts & Figures," one that shows how biodiversity is threatened and photographs of a gorilla and a giraffe.

In the back of the book there is a full compliment of full color flags and brief statistics about the country, a glossary, a thematic index, a place name index and additional recommended web site resources. I like this atlas, not only because it is bright, colorful and appealing, because it is up to date and affords the student a chance to think and compare geographic facts readily. The map projections section was especially interesting because it quickly outlines what the student will be looking at (azmuthal, conic, cylindrical map projections, etc.). This atlas would make a nice gift or perfect addition to your homeschool or classroom shelves.

I really liked this Atlas, I bought it for my kids & it had a lot of information that I found myself spending hours reading it & asking my kids questions. The pages were better quality than what I expected after reading the reviews. Very happy with my purchase.

Great for the school project my daughter was working on. The maps are easy to read with clear description of what they represent, such as political maps vs. other types. Logically organized. My kid actually showed some interest in geography whereas there was none before looking at this.

Just what I ordered. Plenty of helpful info on what goes into making maps and the info contained therein.

This student atlas was a great gift, from the price to the education. I recommend this to anyone who wants to learn about geography. This book is great from ages 9 to fifteen. I thought this book was great because it had high quality and it teaches you a lot about the continents and the oceans.

I am a returning adult student and one professor sprung on us a little test (ungraded fortunately) about the location of different countries in the world. It is amazing how much you forget from High School. Needless to say I was surprised at how much I did not know. This book provided very clear colorfull pictures of each continent and just enough information about each continent regarding terrain, exports, cultures etc. to become aware of and build on if I feel the need. Everyone should know the countries of the world and the location because we are all on this planet together. Excellent book for refreshing the memory and colorful and plain enough for children of all ages.

Very unhappy, Israel was not listed as a country. I do not subscribe to untruths and have sent this book back. Why would any parent want their child to use a Politically Corrected version of a World Atlas. National Geographic has lost any future business I might have considered due to it's revisionist history.

For general information, I am not Jewish, however, I stand with the nation of Israel as a God fearing Christian and conservative who loves freedom and my country.

The National Geographic Student Atlas is a rich resource for elementary and junior high school age children. Not only does it contain excellent maps, but it also includes information about people, animals, climate, the oceans, the atmosphere, etc. I bought three copies for my grandchildren in Japan (English/Japanese biligual), and I'm confident that they will learn a lot and enjoy doing so.

Book was for kids, no country detail. Was looking for an atlas that had a map of each country separately and not all the other stuff in the book. No wonder our children are not being educated!