Helping Your Child
Learn Geography

Free or Inexpensive Materials

Maps

The following places often provide free maps, although you will probably have to go in person or send a self-addressed stamped envelope in order to receive one:

• State tourist agencies and local chambers of commerce publish walking tour maps or guidebooks to area attractions.

• Local government offices, especially those dealing with public transportation, often provide free road maps.

• Car rental companies. The Federal Government has hundreds of maps available. For a comprehensive listing, contact the Government Printing Office (GPO) bookstore in your area or the Superintendent of Documents, Government Printing Office, Washington, DC 20402. The GPO handles the printing and sales of items produced by government agencies. Some examples of what you might find there, or directly through the developing agency, include:

• Schematic maps with historical data and park activities of the areas under the care of the U.S. National Park Service. Contact the particular site, or write to the Department of the Interior, U.S. National Park Service, P.O. Box 7427, Washington, DC 20013-7127.

• Maps from the U.S. Geological Survey, the civilian mapmaking agency of the United States Government, covering a range of areas including National Wildlife Refuges to LANDSAT pictures of the Earth. For a catalog, write to the Earth Science Information Center, U.S. Geological Survey, 507 National Center, Reston, VA 22092.

• A map of the United States showing the U.S. Wildlife Refuges. Write to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Division of Refuge, 18th and C Streets NW, Washington, DC 20204.

• Maps of water recreation areas, from the Army Corps of Engineers. Write to Department of the Army, Corps of Engineers, 2803 52nd Avenue, Hyattsville, MD 20781-1102.

• A wide selection of material is available from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), 400 Maryland Avenue SW, Washington, DC 20546. Of particular interest are NASA Facts--Planet Earth Through the Eyes of LANDSAT 4 and Earth System Science. For a full list, ask for a copy of NASA Educational Publications.

Another source is The Map Catalog (Joel Makower, editor, and Laura Bergheim, associate editor), published in 1986 by Vintage Books of Random House. It is probably at your public library.

Magazines

Look for these magazines in your school or library:

• Discover produced by Family Media, Incorporated;

• World, published by the National Geographic Society; and

• Ranger Rick and Your Big Backyard, published by the National Wildlife Federation.

Pen Pal Organizations

League of Friendship
P.O. Box 509
Mt. Vernon, OH 43050
(6 14)392-3 166

Books

Easy Reading and Picture Books:

• Anderson, Lonzo. Day the Hurricane Happened. Story of what a family does when a hurricane rips through their island.

• Bach, Alice. Most Delicious Camping Trip Ever. Exploits of twin bears on a camping trip.

• Balet, Jan. Fence, A Mexican Tale. Illustrations help tell the story of two Mexican families.

• Beskow, Elsa. Children of the Forest. A family of Tomten (small forest people) work and play through the four seasons in their Nordic home.

• Brenner, Barbara. Barto Takes the Subway. Barto lives in New York City. He and his sister take a trip on the subway.

• Brenner, Barbara. Wagon Wheels. Three young black brothers follow a map to their father's homestead on the Western plains.

• Brinckloe, Julie. Gordon Goes Camping. When Gordon decides to go camping, his friend Marvin tells him of all the things he will need for the trip.

• Buck, Pearl S. Chinese Children Next Door. A mother who had spent her childhood in China tells her children about her neighbors there.

• Burningham, John. Seasons. A series of pictures that define the four seasons.

• Burton, Virginia Lee. Little House. A country house is unhappy when the city with all its houses and traffic grows up around it.

• Chonz, Selina. Bell for Ursli. A boy who lives in a tiny village in the mountains of Switzerland has an adventure when the spring festival comes.

• Cooney, Barbara. Miss Rumphius. One woman's personal odyssey through life to fulfill her grandfather's wish that she make the world more beautiful.

• Devlin, Wende and Harry. Cranberry Thanksgiving; Cranberry Christmas; Cranberry Mystery. A series of mystery-adventure tales set on the cranberry bog shore of Cape Cod.

• Dobrin, Arnold. Josephine's Imagination; A Tale of Haiti. Story of a young girl and her adventures in the Haitian market.

• Eiseman, Alberta. Candido. Paco, a Peruvian boy, loves his pet llama but knows that he must find a way to train the animal to work as other llamas do.

• Ets, Marie Hall. Gilberto and the Wind. A very little boy from Mexico finds that the wind is his playmate.

• Feelings, Muriel L. Jambo Means Hello. A Swahili alphabet book.

• Frasconi, Antonio. See and Say, Guarda e Parla, Mira y Habla,

• Regard et Parle. A picture book that gives words from four languages and prints each in a special color. Has a page of everyday expressions as well.

• Garelic, May. Down to the Beach. Boats, birds, shells, sand, waves, tides and all the fun and wonder of the beach are pictured in simple, rhythmic prose and beautiful watercolors.

• Goble, Paul. The Gift of the Sacred Dog and The Girl Who Loved Wild Horses. These stories, accompanied by beautiful pictures, are based on legends of the Native Americans.

• Green, Norma B. Hole in the Dike. Retells the familiar story of the young Dutch boy whose resourcefulness, courage and finger save his country from being destroyed by the sea.

• Hader, Berta. Reindeer Trail. The generous Laplanders bring their herds of reindeer all the way from Lapland to Alaska to help hungry Eskimos.

• Hoban, Tana. Over, Under & Through, and Other Spatial Concepts. A picture book on spatial concepts.

• Holling, Holling C. Paddle-to-the-Sea. Describes the journey of a toy canoe from the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean.

• Kessler, Ethel. Big Red Bus. An illustrated bus ride for the very beginning reader.

• Krasilovsky, Phyllis. The First Tulips in Holland. Beautiful drawings about spring in Holland.

• Kraus, Robert. Gondolier of Venice. The city of Venice is sinking into the sea, but Gregory, a proud gondolier, gets a clever and unusual idea to help the old city.

• Lamont, Bette. Island Time. A parent and child board the ferry that takes them to their very special island on Puget Sound.

• Lisowski, Gabriel. How Tevye Became a Milkman. Short tale, with illustrations of the Ukrainian countryside, based on the character also depicted in Fiddler on the Roof.

• McCloskey, Robert. Blueberries for Sal. Make Way for Ducklings. One Morning in Maine. Favorites from an award winning children's book author. Each describes a special journey and the difficulties in getting from one place to another.

• Mizumura, Kazue. If I Built a Village. An idealistic picture of what a village, town and city can be ends with a small boy building with blocks.

• Morrow, Suzanne Stark. Inatuk's Friend. Story of an Eskimo child who must move from one place to another.

• Musgrove, Margaret. Ashanti to Zulu: African Traditions. Read and observe 26 African tribes from A to Z.

• Peterson, Hans. Big Snowstorm. Illustrations and text picture events on a Swedish farm during a raging, January blizzard.

• Rockwell, Anne. Thruway. As a small boy rides along a thruway with his mother, he tells of all the things he sees.

• Shortall, Leonard. Peter in Grand Central Station. Peter takes his first trip alone, but when he gets to New York, his uncle is not there to meet him.

• Skorpen, Liesel Moak. We Were Tired of Living in a House. Four small children pack their bags and leave home to find a new and better house.

• Spier, Peter. People. Explores the enormous diversity of the world's population. Looks at various cultures, homes, foods, games, clothing, faces, and religions.

• Van Woerkom, Dorothy. Abu Ali: Three Tales of the Middle East. Abu Ali is fooled by his friends, tricks them in turn and even fools himself in three humorous stories of trickery based on folklore of the Middle East.

Books to Read Aloud or for Better Readers:

• Brink, Carol Ryrie. Caddie Woodlawn. These stories convey the flavor of pioneer life through the eyes of a little girl who lived in Wisconsin a century ago.

• Bulla, Clyde Robert. A Lion to Guard Us. This is a story of the founding fathers of the Jamestown colony and the families they left behind in England.

• DeJong, Meindert. Wheel on the School. Children of Shora, a Netherlands village, are determined to bring storks back to their town.

• Dodge, Mary Mapes. Hans Brinker, or The Silver Skates. Poor Dutch children long to compete in a skating contest.

• DuBois, William Pene. The Twenty-one Balloons. In the fall of 1883, Professor William Waterbury Sherman sets forth from San Francisco on a balloon expedition around the world.

• Hansen, Judith. Seashells in My Pocket: A Child's Guide to Exploring the Atlantic Coast from Maine to North Carolina. A look at seashells on Atlantic Coast beaches.

• Henry, Marguerite. Misty of Chincoteague. A story of the wild ponies that live on an island off the eastern shore of Virginia, and of one freedom-loving pony.

• Kelly, Eric. The Trumpeter of Krakow. Mystery story centering around an attack on the ancient city of Krakow in medieval Poland.

• Milne. A.A. The House at Pooh Corner; Winnie-the-Pooh. Christopher Robin and his friends have adventures and tell stories.

• Mowat, Farley. Owls in the family. This is a story of the author's boyhood on the Saskatchewan prairie, raising dogs, gophers, rats, snakes, pigeons, and owls.

• McNulty, Faith. Hurricane. This is a nature story that takes place when a family struggles against a hurricane.

• Spyri, Johanna. Heidi. Story of a young girl who goes to live with her grandfather in the Swiss Alps. She is then taken by her aunt to live in the city and struggles to return to her grandfather.

• Steig, William. Abel's Island. A mouse lives for a year in the wilderness until his wit and courage take him back home.

• Wilder, Laura Ingalls. The Little House series. Documents the life of the author and her husband a century ago.

• Wyss, Johann. Swiss Family Robinson. The adventures of a Swiss family shipwrecked on a desert island.

Atlases and other reference guides for young people:

• Big Blue Marble Atlas. Paula Brown and Robert Garrison. Ideals Publishing group. Milwaukee. 1988.

• Discovering Maps: A Young Person's Atlas. Hammond Incorporated. Maplewood, N.J. 1989.

• Doubleday Children's Atlas. Jane Oliver, editor. Doubleday. New York. 1987.

• Facts on File Children's Atlas. David and Jill Wright. Facts on File Publications. New York. 1987.

• Life Through the Ages. Giovanni Caselli. Grossett and Dunlop. New York. 1987.

• Picture Atlas of Our World. National Geographic Society. Washington, D.C. 1979.

• Picture Encyclopedia of the World for Children. Bryon Williams and Lynn Williamson. Simon and Schuster. New York. 1984.

• Rand McNally Children's Atlas of the World. Bruce Ogilvie. Rand McNally and Co., Inc. Chicago. 1985.

• Rand McNally Student's World Atlas. Rand McNally and Co. Chicago. 1988.

• Usborne Book of World Geography. Jenny Tyler, Lisa Watts, Carol Bowyer, Roma Trundle and Annabel Warrender. Usborne Publishing, Ltd. London. 1984.