My Very First Oxford Atlas - all the info a child could need about the world (My Very First Atlas)

Member Name: karlsm93

Product:	My Very First Atlas
Date:	11/05/09 (65 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Colourful pictures perfectly illustrate the information

Disadvantages: some info a little outdated but not enough to make it not a useful book

As with many of my own classroom books, I picked this 'My Very First Oxford Atlas' up in a charity shop for 20p in pretty good condition, but I do see that you can pick it up on the likes of play.com for £2.49, or even cheaper through Amazon private sellers. The publishers, Oxford University Press however, have published a newer edition of this atlas, but I am reviewing the 1997 edition.

Anyhow, I purchased this a couple of years ago, so I would be able to keep a very basic atlas in my classroom, as a reference book for both me and the children. To say its basic, is itself an understatement, but I wasn't looking for a complicated atlas.

Inside the front cover of this hardback edition, are several questions that children might find interesting, along with a simple answer for each. for example:
What is a ........planet? Ans: A planet is a world which moves around a star. Our own planet is called Earth and our star is called the sun.

What is an.....island? An island is land with sea all around. Great Britain and Ireland are islands.

Alongside each question is a small picture, illustrating the point.

Following on from this is a contents page, showing the book to be divided into 4 main sections:
The Earth
Maps of the World
Maps of Europe
Maps of the British Isles

Now, this book is only compiled of 32 page, so these sections are not particularly lenghty - ideal for young children. I liked the fact that rather than the contents page being merely a list of features with their page references, the sections are accompanied by colourful drawings.

*The Earth*
This short section is made up almost entirely of drawings/pictures, illustrating the earth as it sits in space, surrounded by stars and other galaxies, with a short piece of text at the foot of each page. Children get a glimpse of what the earth looks like from space, and see up close how the earth is round like a ball. The picture of the earth on page 6, gives children an opportunity to see some of the various land masses on the face of the earth, and they can be shown the UK from the picture, and think about its size in comparison to other countries/continents. The pictures in this section illustrate perfectly the land and the sea, and helps young children to start to understand more about the earth. There is also a double page spread showing various views of the earth as it spins, again illustrating to children that the earth doesn't stay still. These are all concepts that many children find hard to grasp, and having more pictures than text in this book brings these ideas home to children.

*The World*
This section starts with a double page spread of the world flat out. Children can see the land in green, and the sea in blue. They can have fun trying to find where their own country is, as well as spotting some others. I have even used this map and stuck on labels for some of the countries/continents that the children had heard of like Africa, America etc. This map also dhows the line of the equator, as well as the artic and antartic circle, and the tropic of cancer and capricorn.

This is then followed by another double page spread, only this time, the rivers and mountains are highlighted, along with some of the highest mountain peaks. Children are shown the river nile, river amazon, mississippi, river yangtze, along with the himalayas, andes etc. I find that even though some of the children don't quite understand it all, they are fascinated by finding out about these places.

Another double page spread follows this, showing the different environments of the earth, such as forests, savannah's, deserts, ice, marsh, along with labels of the oceans of the world. Now, I have to admit, that I never spend long on this section, as it is just too much for some of the children to really understand, but it can illustrate the point that some people live in hot countries with deserts, some live in colder countries etc.

The final two double page spreads in this section firstly show children the 7 different continents of the world, and then show some of the different countries and important cities in the world. Not all countries of course are labelled, which helps keep this book up to date, for the most part.

*Europe*
The first double page spread in this section shows a basic map of Europe and points out that Europe is in fact the smallest continent. Some of the major rivers and mountain peaks are labelled including Mont Blanc, River Seine, River Rhine etc.

The two pages that follow this show the countries that make up Europe. Now, as far as I can see the only information that needs updated in this atlas is in reference to Yugoslavia, instead of Serbia and Montenegro (as far as I know!). The divisions of the country are easily seen by the use of varoius colours. The second page concentrates more on some of the countries that are members of the EU, along with a picture of their flag.


*The British Isles*
The first page of this section shows a photograph from a satellite of the british isles. Children can then take a closer look on the facing side, showing some of the smaller islands dotted around the two bigger islands namely Ireland and Great Britain.

The followign pages show firstly, some of the mountains and rivers in the British Isles and their locations includingthe Grampian Mountains, Lake District, Pennines, River Thames etc. The facing page colourfully illustrates to children how the two islands are divided up ie England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland making up the United Kingdown of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and showign Ireland as a separate country. The capital of each is also pin pointed on the map.

The final two pages of the atlas, firstly who the British Isles, labelled with some of the main cities and their locations. The opposite page highlights some places to visit within the british isles, shown on the map such as: Great Yarmouth, Tower of London, Blackpool, Stonehenge, Edinburgh etc.

The majority of the maps in this book have a small 'key' beside them, allowing slightly older children to develop early geographical skills. In the British Isles section there is also a scale, so older children can even use this in their numeracy, as a numerical exercise converting scale drawing sizes to real sizes.

Children can consult an index at the back, which lists many continents, countries and cities which can be found labelled in the book.

On the very back page of the book to finish, are several more questions, starting what is.....?
Eg.
What is......the environment?
What is ....a desert?

Like the front page, each question is accompanied by a small colourful drawing illustrating its explanation.

Overall, I think this is a wonderful book to have either in a classroom for primary aged children, or even in a child's own bookshelf. Its amazing how many times, the name of a place comes up in a book etc and its easy to whip out this basic atlas and show the children where exactly it is. Yes, a globe will do the same job, but I still find it easier showing children from a book.

I love the colourfulness of this book, making it so appealing to both teacher/parent and child. The book is divided simply into those four sections and tell the children through mostly picture most of the information they want to know.

As I made reference to a few times, the book does need some updating ,which I suppose is why many may simply opt for the newer edition, however, I don't believe there is enough outdates information to warrant this book no longer useful. Most of the information that a primary school children would require is accurately found in this book. I am very happy with my edition, and this it is a great book to have, to help children understand more about the world around them.

Summary: a great resource to make referece to