Review by Booklist Review
When Zane sends Anna an invitation to visit his family's apartment, he encloses a map that he made. She is puzzled to find her house on the periphery, rather than at the center. She attempts to draw her own map, but it's so big in scale that she runs out of space. Her father shows her a map of the area and asks her to imagine that she's a bird flying overhead. The next day, they walk to Zane's home, which Anna finds using the map that her friend made. This picture book combines fiction with related facts. Along with the simple story, most of the book's double-page spreads include a few sentences of map-related information, such as the value of small-scale maps to show large areas, and the space-saving use of symbols instead of words. The mixed-media illustrations are cheerful, and those representing Anna's maps and drawings have a childlike look. For children who enjoy a bit of narrative context along with facts, it offers a visually appealing approach to the topic.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
At the start of this cartographic picture book by French (the Knight in Training series), young Zane, portrayed with brown skin, sends his pale-skinned friend Anna an invitation to visit him, along with a hand-drawn map from her home to his. "Clever Zane," says Anna's father; "But he's put his house in the middle," Anna objects, "and our house on the very edge. That's not right." As Anna draws her own version, running into issues with orientation and scale, her father shows her variations via a printed map ("Imagine you're a bird.... This is how you'd see things when you looked down") and a family tree. Notes throughout elucidate map-related concepts ("The size of things on a map, compared to real life, is called the map's scale") as the story moves toward its end, in which Anna confidently leads her father to Zane's home. Huang (And I Think About You) paints the figures in a loose, naturalistic style, and shows the maps close-up, clearly distinguishing between various iterations. It's a subtle look at the documents' inherent subjectivity that may inspire readers to pursue projects of their own. Ages 3--7. (May)
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
Despite computer-dictated directions everywhere, there's still a place for physical maps. This delightful work starts by depicting the small house where light-skinned Anna lives and the six-story apartment building where brown-skinned Zane waves from his balcony. Along with an invitation, Zane has sent Anna a map, irritating the girl because her house is relegated to the edge. Light-skinned Dad, down on the floor with Anna, urges her to make her own map, which she does. Hers is very large--but still too small to include Grandma's house, prompting Dad to introduce the concepts of bird's-eye perspective and scale. Anna still prefers her map. She then makes quite a different map for her cat Whiskers' favorite places, and Dad branches out to make another kind of map: a family tree. Finally, Zane's map guides Anna as she and Dad walk to Zane's house. The two final pages offer suggestions for maps readers might want to draw. Engagingly naïve but legible illustrations of the children's efforts meld beautifully with Huang's simple but expert watercolors. Readers will enjoy tracking the appearances of adored, snub-nosed Whiskers. Throughout, the warm connection between Dad and daughter comes through clearly. (This book was reviewed digitally.) This winsomely illustrated exploration of maps is the perfect entry to understanding--and embracing--cartography. (index) (Informational picture book. 4-8) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
