The Boy Who Loved Maps

This enchanting picture book about a map-making boy who is stumped when a girl asks him for a map of the "perfect place" helps readers appreciate the charms of their own neighborhood--and even shows them how to make a map of it!
 

The Mapmaker loves maps. He loves to collect them, to study them, and most of all, he loves to make them. But when a girl asks for a map of a perfect place, the Mapmaker is perplexed. She wants a map to a toes-in-the-sand-warm, X-marks-the-spot-place filled with treasures, where it smells like her birthday and she can zip around like a dragonfly. Surely, a place that is all of these things can't exist...can it? Well, after a fun-filled day of exploring the neighborhood, the Mapmaker will discover that the perfect place--home--has been right in front of him all along.

Here is a picture book, as creative as it is charming, that celebrates home, and is a gentle reminder to look around and appreciate what surrounds you.

Kari Allen is an educator and children's book writer. She has worked with the National Writing Project in New Hampshire to coordinate writing camps and facilitate creative workshops, and is currently a second-grade teacher. THE BOY WHO LOVED MAPS is her debut. You can visit Kari at kariallenwrites.com.

G. Brian Karas is the prolific, versatile, and award-winning illustrator of many books for children, including A Poem in Your Pocket, How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin?, and The Apple Orchard Riddle. He also illustrated A Hat for Mrs. Goldman by Michelle Edwards; Neville by Norton Juster; Clever Jack Takes the Cake by Candace Fleming, which received four starred reviews; Are You Going to Be Good? by Cari Best, a New York Times Best Illustrated Book; and Home on the Bayou, a Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor Book. Visit him at GBrianKaras.com.