Vivian French

Recommended by Ethel and others in the AWRCB group.

A short quatrain on each page spread leaves it up to the reader to examine the illustrations closely. While the text is mild, the pictures are exciting and full of fairytale characters: a giant approaching, a wolf and Little Red, Humpty Dumpty falling off a wall, the Three Little Pigs building a house, and the Three Bears fixing the littlest bear's chair after Goldilocks broke it. When the child narrator concludes, "Nothing much happened / around here today," readers will disagree!… (mere)

Zane gives Anna a paper invitation to his apartment, along with a copy of a hand-drawn map. But Anna notices that Zane's apartment is in the middle of the map, while her house is on the edge - that's not right! Anna and her dad make their own maps, and then Anna follows Zane's directions and map to visit his apartment to play.

Introduces the compass with cardinal directions, and the idea of a key, and Xs to mark spots. Inviting, playful, creative.

See also: Camilla, Cartographer by Julie Dillemuth and Laura Wood; Your House, My House by Marianne Dubuc… (mere)

Excerpt from a longer article:

Synergy: Celebrating Mail

MAIL are items sent, carried, or delivered by a postal system. Many types of transportation may be used in transporting bags and boxes of letters, packages and other items. Maps and postal routes increase the efficiency of mail.

To understand a concept, it’s useful to read a cluster of books related to a theme. Explore these recently published books for children:
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FROM HERE TO THERE: A FIRST BOOK OF MAPS by Vivian French examines the world of maps and mapmaking. When her play date invitation includes a map, Anna decides to learn more about maps and how they are made. Readers are encouraged to make their own map. ARC courtesy of Candlewick, an imprint of Penguin Random House.… (mere)