Customer Reviews

National Geographic World Atlas for Young Explorers (New Millennium)

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

 

 

I ordered this for my 5 year old daughter because the price was right. But, I was happily surprised by how thorough and lovely the pictures are. The beginning of the book contains a comprehensive section on how to read maps, and explains how a map can represent different information (climate, politics, terrain). Each continent also had photographs of the people, and natural formations that are identified with it. That was nice!

But, all cannot be perfect alas. Many of the maps span two pages, to make it larger I presume. However, and this is REALLY annoying, you cannot see what is in the crease between the two pages! The United States is missing parts of it, Africa is bisected at the Congo. I would rather Nat'l Geographic had made each map a fold-out. I guess there would have been a chance that it would eventually get ripped out, but at least you can see the whole area being shown.

1. The book is bound in such a manner that the binding conceals map features in the binding making them difficult or impossible to see.
2. The content of explanatory material is too general. It presents no challenge to further interest children at the high end (age 11-12)
of the recommended age grouping.
A book like this should present a challenge to motivated children.
If used with an adult it would be fine for younger children, but would
bore or frustrate an adult trying to motivate an older truly interested, highly
motivated youngster. A sad commentary on the inspiration for this age
group. We are grandparents of 79 years, whose 4 children have broad and
deep interests that they have conveyed to their children.

I encourage my parents to purchase this atlas each year for the map unit my students do all year. It has plenty of information but is not too dense with terms.

This is a wonderful atlas, great for a beginner but the adults are enjoying it too.