Children’s books about maps – our favourites
In this post I share our favourite books and resources for exploring maps, for a variety of different ages. Maps are inherently practical, and children will need lots of hands-on activities to help them to develop their skills in using and creating maps. Some of these books contain suggestions for these sorts of activities, but I would also really recommend getting out and about and having children use maps in practical situations.
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Practical mapping skills
In addition to these books, I would really recommend taking a look at orienteering courses in your local area. There are often permanent courses set up in parks or other accessible locations, and this can be a really fun way to develop children’s mapping skills.
Ultimate Mapping Guide for Kids
Justin Miles
This slim volume would be a great jumping-off point for a mapping project. It includes lots of suggestions for practical, hands-on activities for developing mapping and navigation skills. Most of the activities are pretty simple to do, such as a scale map of your bedroom, making a compass out of cork and a needle, or drawing the contour lines of a rock. I found that they were the best kind of simple activities….things which are easy to achieve, but also memorable, and designed to deepen understanding.
The Ordnance Survey Kids’ Adventure Book
A great choice for British readers from the national mapping organisation. This attractively illustrated book gives an overview of the different maps produced by the Ordnance Survey, and how to read them (features, keys, etc). The middle section of the book explains how to use a map, covering contour lines, compass skills and route planning. The final section of the book is a series of mapping challenges. There are 15 different OS map samples with a series of quiz clues. For each map there is a base activity and then a challenge question. My child really enjoyed these challenges, and I thought they were great for increasing familiarity with a range of map features in urban, rural and coastal environments.
Maps of your local area
The value of introducing children to typical, local maps for your area cannot be underestimated. For younger children, it may be better to begin with something simpler like a map of a local park. You could make one yourself, or use an orienteering map for a local permanent course.
For slightly older children, a close scale map such as 1:25,000 can be used on a walk or bike ride. It may be helpful to print a smaller section of the map which is easier for them to hold. A larger map of your local area can be spread on the floor with challenges to find local landmarks. Laminate maps are more durable for children.
If you are in the UK, the Royal Geographical Society has a series of freely available Map Skills lessons here, using Ordnance Survey maps for Years 4, 5 and 6.
World maps
Draw Europe (Art K12)
Kristin J. Draeger
This is part of a fun series of simple mapping books for different parts of the world. On each page, children add another country or geographical feature, step by step. I think the idea is that you could learn to draw the map from memory, but I have never required this. It is quite a fun activity to offer to children, and I think drawing the map yourself a few times does really aid in understanding how the continent as a whole fits together.
Prisoners of Geography: Our World Explained in 12 Simple Maps
Tim Marshall
A wonderful book for older children, looking at geopolitics. I found it really interesting as an adult! I believe there is an adult version.
There are twelve maps of different areas of the world, and then several pages explaining how the geography of that area has impacted on the history, politics and wars of that region. The stories from the individual regions are very interesting, but for me the gold is just getting children thinking ‘geographically’ when we are discussing history, politics and current affairs.
Fun with maps
The Map Activity Book (Usborne)
This is a really fun gift for a child who enjoys maps. Some of the activities are more standard mapping tasks like using grid squares and understanding contour lines. Others are more unusual maps such as star constellations, or animal noises in a reserve. There are also some interesting pages connecting to historical uses of maps, such as locating the source of cholera infection. I personally wouldn’t use this as part of our schoolwork, because there isn’t enough ‘meat’ on any particular topic for my taste. However, one of my children did really enjoy this book, and it’s a great choice for something to do on long journeys.
Map and Maze Puzzles (Usborne Superpuzzles)
Sarah Dixon and Radhi Parekh
I really enjoyed this series as a child. Map & Maze Puzzles is the first book in the series, and although they are out of print, they can usually be picked up second hand at a very reasonable price. You cannot write in the books, so your child will need some paper or an exercise book. I let mine put a pencil note of ones completed in the corners of the pages. For some of the maps, it can be helpful to photocopy the page so that they can doodle on it.
Many of the maps are more ‘abstract’, and this is a book to get you thinking rather than focussing on practical map skills. Nonetheless, it is a lot of fun and I would highly recommend it. These are HARD puzzles, and a child may need to make several attempts to crack them.
Secret Water (Swallows and Amazons)
Arthur Ransome
All of the Swallows and Amazons books have beautiful hand-drawn maps in the front, showing the locations where the stories take place, and the journeys that the children go on. These maps were an inspiration to me as a child, to create my own maps of walks and other adventures.
Of all the Swallows and Amazons books, I think that Secret Water develops these ideas of mapping the most. The children are camping on a tidal island, and their father gives them the task of surveying the local area, using long bamboo rods and compasses. After reading this book, we practiced some surveying of our own. The key thing is to keep it simple to start with!
Content warning: As part of the children’s imaginative play, there are references to natives, savages and human sacrifices. The children become ‘blood brothers’ by pricking fingers, whilst the most sensible amongst them worries about blood poisoning and douses them in iodine.
Other ideas
UK in Maps (Collins)
This is a very ‘schooly’ book, but it has a lot of very interesting information in it, and can be used as a reference resource for lots of different purposes. For example, there is an interesting map indicating the areas of Britain in which Iron Age hill forts and Pictish brochs are typically found. I loved the pages showing the key settlements and areas of industry at particular points in British history, such as the wool trade and the coal fields. There are also pages on migration, green belts, sources of renewable energy, and the watershed line.
I actually came across it when trying to find some blank regional maps to use alongside Let’s Explore the British Isles, and I found the accompanying Activity guide at the Collins website.
Maps: From Anna to Zane
Vivian French
I bought Maps: From Anna to Zane as a ‘living book’ for my younger children to enjoy alongside our maps project. It is a nice story and well illustrated, but I didn’t think it really contained enough detail about maps for my purposes, and probably wouldn’t choose it again.
