Geography Reference Favorites {Atlases and Multicultural Titles}
Many moons ago I tested into the geography bee, representing my fifth grade class. I cannot even fathom how this was possible as I feel virtually illiterate about the countries of the world! Homeschooling has been good for ME! Our co-op takes one region at a time, following the Kathy Troxel geography songs. As we explore a new region, we pull out a few reference volumes at home that have been so helpful in enriching our studies. These are certainly applicable to a wide variety of bookworms, from the youngest world travelers through elementary school; and bookworms educated in any manner of settings.
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The Travel Book: A Journey Through Every Country in the World (Lonely Planet Kids). Features a colorful, photography rich spread on every country in the world (including Monaco, which is smaller than Central Park!). This provides a nice, quick intro to the countries with stats and highlights of each country’s culture, landscape, and what it’s famous for. (Not an atlas)
Maps by Aleksandra and Daniel Mizielinska. This book is a treasure! Each spread is gorgeous and absolutely full of information, and it is an oversized book to encourage poring over its details. The only draw back is that it doesn’t include every single country of the world.
Maps of the World: An Illustrated Children’s Atlas of Adventure, Culture, and Discovery by Enrico Lavagno. Featuring every continent, country, and even outer space, this atlas is heavily illustrated. Each region is featured in a spread, and then the following pages explain each picture element in a sentence or two. So, for example, you’ll see a picture of a snake in Brazil on the map of South America; the following page lists Brazil, the picture of that snake and a factoid about anacondas. As a nice bonus, each map includes a link to print your own copy at home (to your own printer ink’s discretion!)
National Geographic Kids Beginner’s World Atlas. This is what you think of as a traditional atlas, and a solid choice for early elementary grades (and it’s oversized!). You’ll find map keys, scales, political/physical maps, and photographs detailing both the land and the people– land regions, climate, plants, animals, cities, languages, products.
Children Just Like Me. A photograph rich volume that gives a peek into the lives of children around the world- housing, language, family, dress, customs, and food.
Hungry Planet: What the World Eats. This one is for my foodie. We enjoy comparing the eating habits of cultures around the world, as families from various countries are shown with a week’s worth of groceries and at the market.
Girl on a Motorcycle is an inspiring biography picture book about the first woman to ride a motorcycle around the world alone… a fun way to see geography studies in the real world as you follow her travels!
Not a book, but take a look at the website Dollar Street, which allows you to search by country and area of interest to see photos taken from how families live around the world. So, you can search for “Toys in Sweden,” or “Beds in Bulgaria”… or a hundred other combinations!
I’m sure we will be adding to this list as our (book-based) travels continue! What are your favorites? Connect with me in the comments below or on my Facebook or Instagram accounts.
Along with learning facts about the countries we are exploring, we are also reading around the world with folktales! Here you can find my post about Western Europe, and I have several more posts in the drafts bin!
You can also read about how I introduced map skills to my Kindergarten Bookworm here.
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