Member Reviews
50 Maps of the World is a delightful and enriching addition to the beloved series that has captured the hearts of young explorers and geography enthusiasts alike. With stunning illustrations, this book offers a captivating journey through 50 diverse countries.
I’ve always loved this series, and I had several titles in my classroom library, where they quickly became favorites among my students. The way each two-page spread introduces a country with quick-fire facts, cultural insights, and beautiful maps is both educational and engaging. The combination of geography, history, and culture spills from the pages, making each country come alive.
From the natural wonders of Ethiopia to the architectural marvels of Machu Picchu, this book encourages curiosity about the world. Each spread features spotlighted locations and a timeline of historical events, providing a well-rounded understanding of what makes each nation unique. This not only informs young readers but also inspires them to dream of their own adventures.
50 Maps of the World is a fantastic addition to the series and would make an excellent resource for classroom libraries. It sparks conversations about global cultures and encourages children to think critically about the world around them. I highly recommend this book for teachers and parents looking to foster a love of geography and exploration in their young learners. It’s a must-have for any budding globetrotter!
A very good addition for children's library. Colorful illustrations and information about different parts of world make this a very fun book.I am sure actual book is way more beautiful than the e book. Thank you NetGalley for send me this book.
Thank you so much to net galley and the publisher for giving me a copy of this book! Super awesome I would love to get this book for a few different people
50 Maps of the World is packed full of interesting information. I, like other reviewers, found that the pages were at times over-crowded. This of course may mean it is less appealing to some children. However, I still think that it would be a really good addition to a school classroom/library. I have chosen to give it 4 out of 5 stars.
Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
I received an advance reader copy of this book to read in exchange for an honest review via netgalley and the publishers.
50 Maps of the World is an interesting map filled book for children to learn about other countries and places around our planet.
Each map has snippets of information about the country and illustrations too.
This book is great for encouraging or feeding a child's interest in the world around them and has lots of information to draw them in.
The visual aspect of this book wasn't as great as it could have been which is why I've rated it 3 stars instead of 4. But this is my personal taste and others may disagree.
*received for free from netgalley for honest review* this is such an awesome book! i cant wait to buy this, love it!
A big thank you to NetGalley and Quarto Publishing Group/Wide Eyes Editions for the ARC. I am voluntarily reviewing this book. Ok I am a geek. I love maps! Not sure what age group this is geared for, but I found the maps a bit overwhelming. They seemed very busy (colorful) and very broad. They contained very limited details. For example, no provinces were on the France map. I guess a good general introduction. 3 stars
This was an interesting read. Each page is a map that points out various interesting things that happen, reside, or belong in that country or region. The authors have made sure to point out the weird and the wonderful, like the world's longest escalator that's inside a golden dragon, the Poo museum, and that there are 2 Guggenheim museums. This is very well done and an interesting way of learning new things. It had this reader googling things to see the real deal and not just the little illustrations.
This book takes you on trip of 50 countries. It has elobrate maps of each country with highlights put on major historical places, tourist places and geographical landmarks. Associated with this are facts that you will love to read. Each map is not upto the scale and is simplified version to suit amateur reading.
Still inspite of sincere efforts to keep things simple and clean it still appears fuzzy sometimes as multiple facts are assorted together.
A good book for geography lovers and travel buffs that is very helpful to learn about places worth visiting.
A really good book for kids and adults all the same.
I am a self confessed atlas junkie. Which means I am forever on the lookout for a perfect atlas for the little one. We currently use a beautiful pop up atlas by Anita Ganeri but it takes a broader continent centered approach to geography and I was looking for something more country specific. One that would catch my child's attention and seemlessly combine geography with history and cultural references. Adding in a bit of flora and fauna to it, maybe. High expectations, right?
Looking at only maps does not do much to the inherent curiosity. Adding in bits of information helps them gain cultural context and we can build on it using other resources at our disposal. With songs, videos and more books. Just when I was giving up on that search I found an atlas that does all this and more.
50 Maps of the World by Ben Handicott, Kalya Ryan and Sol Linero is just perfect for all the beginner geography lessons especially if you are taking a country specific approach. It brings in history, food, currency, flags among other things but keeps it light enough for one to seek more on the subject. That is, if they choose to do so.
I have tried a few geography books for the little and I'm glad I found this one. It has helped make our lessons more wholesome. In the name of full disclosure- we've only done two countries but I haven't had to run around to collect resources. The country based info capsule has been enough.
Geography nerds, you will love this!
I really loved this book and all of the information about each map. I learned so much just by reading through. It is a lot to read on each page, but it is 100% worth it to find out all the neat facts about Hungary, Poland, Turkey, Scandinavia, and so many more countries and regions! The illustrations really round it out and draw everything together; they're fun and bright, and well-thought out.
An amazing addition to everyone's home library and a great tool for geography teachers and enthusiast!
This illustrated edition fills your eyes with amazing and pretty accurate infographics of 50 countries of all 7 continents.
Each two-page spread provide a set of basic facts of each State, a general list of historical relevant events, a few notable people (both past and present) and pinpointed highly interesting landmarks and tourist attractions, all wrap up in a beautifully crafted visual composition that is a the delight to see and would probably entice both young and old.
Great for working inside and outside the classroom, a trip planning or just to enjoy learning about the world and it's wonders.
When reading, it's only downside seems to be the unfulfilled desire to have a spread for each and every country in the world!
I got this on Netgalley in exchange for an honest review!
I want to start off the review by saying that I think the maps of each spread and the chosen sites to highlight are really good, and aesthetically this is a very nice collection of maps from different places in the world!
My main problem with this book is that I think it wants to do too much. On each individual spread, it seems to want to boil down everything of significance both in the form of the key facts and the 5 people chosen for that country, by including both key historic events/people, science, sports, religion, and general culture. This makes it seem like a lot of it was just random things the author decided were of high significance. Where this becomes even more problematic is on spreads where more than one country is featured, since not only is there no equal focus on all the countries presented, but the facts and people seem even more random. I am Norwegian, and can immediately think of a dozen more interesting people to feature for Norway than Harald Sigurdsson??
Also, why isn't Palestine also a country chosen to highlight since Israel is featured? There are already facts about Palestine on this page so I would find it natural.
So overall, not a bad collection, but with a bit more clear of scope it would be really good!
Thank you for sharing this book with me, #NetGalley !
Don't know when did maps start to fascinate me. But this one is like infographic maps, with a lot of new knowledge to absorbs. So very useful, mostly for kids to be able to position themselves in a country. And as updated as who is and where does Greta Thurnberg came from.
I like maps a lot so was excited to read this book and at first glance, was pleased.
The illustrations are bright and engaging and I liked the timeline and fact file for each map.
Looking more closely, I became less sure.
The countries chosen seem a bit odd. I can't quite work out why certain places were chosen or why, for example, there were so many from certain continents. There also seem to be several countries/groups of countries where borders are missing.
Some of the choices of famous people from each place were just a bit strange. Some had well-known artists or historical figures and seemed well thought out and others look more like someone just Googled 'famous person from ...' and just went with whatever came first.
At the end of the book is a 'find it' section, which just confirmed my feeling, along with the overcrowded pages, that the book was trying to do too much. There are so many other books of illustrated maps for children and, while I wouldn't have a problem with a child reading this, there are others that I would recommend first.
What a great way for any child to learn about planet Earth!
Includes 50 colorful and info-rich spreads on featured countries, including memorable sites, key facts, historical timelines, and influential people.
A perfect children’s gift to inspire lifetime travel!
5 of 5 Stars
Pub Date 01 Sep 2020
Thanks to Quarto Publishing Group-Wide Eyed Editions and NetGalley for the review copy. Opinions are mine.
#50MapsoftheWorld #NetGalley
50 Maps with Tons of Fascinating Facts
This book of fifty maps of countries and closely related territories (e.g., UK and Ireland, the Baltic countries of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania) provides children with an overview of each country (or group of them). The book starts in Europe and makes its way gradually east and south until finishing with South America. As there are far more than 50 countries in the world, some places in the world certainly got short shrift, especially South America and Africa. Each map gets a two-page spread that shares a variety of information like important dates, people, and places. They also give key facts for each, like languages spoken, major cities, the capital, and currency. There's also a brief introduction usually titled like, “Welcome to the land of....”
While this book is chock-full of interesting stories and facts, including landmarks and people, some choices seemed odd to me. Some introductory sections just played to cultural stereotypes. For instance, Spain was called the land of tapas; when I think of Spain, I think it is a foundational place of world exploration that paved the way for world travel (admittedly, usually not the best contact resulted!). Of course, Italy is the land of pizza (plus emperors and genius inventors). I thought it odd that in the historical moments chosen for Germany, World War I was not mentioned at all. Regarding the people chosen to represent the countries, I would have loved to have seen more scientists and inventors featured rather than so many artists and entertainers, who seemed to predominate. More women would have been lovely, too. I did like that the people featured were both historical and contemporary people. For instance, on the UK and Ireland map, we see both Shakespeare and Bono. (By the way, I'll admit to some annoyance about how the UK and Ireland were lumped together and the split between Northern Ireland and the Republic was not shown.)
While this certainly won't educate a child about everything to do with the countries featured and shows several biases, there's a lot of fascinating snippets of information here that could spark a child's interest in learning more about a country, a landmark, a historical event, or people. Inspiring curiosity and learning would be a fantastic thing!
I always enjoy Flying Eye books, vibrant and informative and this one is just as nice. The maps obviously give only a selective amount of information but the snippets that have been included do give you a flavour of each country. and as such are a good introduction. I enjoyed looking at all the small details and the illustrations as ever are beautifully done. I think this would be a book to be enjoyed much like a picture book and as such it would have reasonably broad appeal.
We loooove maps in our family. Both my kids learned to iron on paper maps they wanted to frame. My son is a geography enthusiast who can name almost any pro league soccer stadium in the world. This book absolutely calls to us.
The book is laid out well with lots of information on slightly modified maps. It introduces people of note, moments to remember, and spotlights certain areas of each map.
There are so many things to love! Lots of women included in the people of note, so many interesting tidbits. We all have gained new places we want to go when the pandemic is over, like the lava fields of Yatta Plateau in Kenya, or Isla del Sol in Bolivia.
For younger audience members who might be having this read aloud to them there is a search and find legend at the back of the book. I can't imagine any child who isn't going to want to search for Poopoo Land. All of the illustrations are endearing.
We had a couple of issues with the book, however. One is that my kids have struggled with upper and lower case letters, since this doesn't exist in Japanese. Some of the fonts in this book are stylized to mix the upper and lower case letters, on the letters i and l among others, which can confuse beginning or ESL readers.
Another issue is that I noticed at least one inaccuracy. It says of Fukuoka Castle that "visitors come in droves to see the cherry blossoms from up high in the crumbling turret." In actuality the turret that is pictured is on one of the lower levels of the castle walls, and the cherry blossom views are from the ramparts. Also, nothing about the castle is crumbling, the walls are in amazing condition as well as the buildings that are still there. This is just a little thing, and understandable as I'm sure they couldn't have visited every place on these 50 maps, but it makes us wonder what else may be inaccurate in the book.
The good parts of this book will stick with us for a long time as we dream of traveling, so we give it 4 out of 5 dumplings.
On first glance this book looks great. The pages are colourful and have eye catching mini illustrations.
However... this is where NetGalley always states that we should give an honest review. The rest of this review uses the pages about Them United Kingdom and Ireland’ as a basis for the points below.
Problem 1: I’m not convinced that, particularly with the growing awareness of the ‘Black Lives Matter’ campaign, there is enough diversity in this book. All five famous people are white men and women are white. Two are from the same time period, and I’m not sure if any are Welsh or Scottish. Children, as I was reminded at a recent teaching conference, want to see themselves [or their ancestors] in books.
Problem 2: Ireland. Ireland is at this time is a country in two parts; Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. This is not a recent split On the map, the two key cities of Belfast and Dublin are noted, but there is no border. This is not a feature that can be omitted, it connects with a significant part of Irish history and identity.
I’m sorry, but I cannot recommend this book in its current format. I’d be happy to look again if there were updates.
One star for the beautiful style.