Winnie the Pooh drew the map of the 100 Aker Wood on his book (Mr. Shepard helped), which has been loved to cracking by my family for years, and is the first book I remember with a map. As a child a map at the beginning of a book was an invitation to adventure for me, and a guaranteed read.
If maps on the inside covers of a book tickle your fancy too, check out this link. It includes this map, in a book by Arthur Ransome, who included maps in most of his work. The maps visualized the adventure you were about to embark on, often with comments by the characters. Check out more of them here.
In my perfect world, every book would start with a map.
How about you? Do you remember books with maps?
Listen to Me!
Oh YES, I love book maps! I was always making up games to play with the encyclopedia maps too. But a map in a fictional book really enhanced my visualization of the story. Tolkien maps were great!
I loved this blog entry! Maps in kids’ books are great in helping to orient the reader to the protag’s world and make it read so real.
I love maps! I’m so glad you wrote this book, it’s on my Christmas list (although I’m obviously hoping to win a copy in your fabulously generous giveaway).
I’ve always loved the map of 100 acre wood but also the one in front of the Milly-Molly-Mandy books
I’ve been following the blog hop and today I couldn’t stand it any longer…I bought the book! Figure if I also win one…someone I know will be getting a great gift! I remember all those (fictional) maps in all those books; they sent my imagination flying to all sorts of exotic places and ending up in all sorts of exotic stories! It was the place to be on a cold rainy day when you simply didn’t want to go outdoors and play.
I love, love, love books with endpaper maps. Since childhood, a book with a map in the front or back pages has been irresistible to me. I want a couple of your books as gifts for my daughter and daughter-in-law, who are both artists and journal-keepers. What a great idea!
I loved opening a book as a kid and seeing a map. Funny, as grown-ups we rely on maps all the time – who can get around these days without a GPS – but we’ve gotten away from the “hard copy” map. This is so cool!