Mapping the World - Hardcover

Johnson, Sylvia A.

3.29

14 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0689818130 ISBN 13: 9780689818134

Publisher: Atheneum, 1999

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Complete with maps from Mesopatamia through the Age of Exploration and beyond, young readers are introduced the different ways in which the world has been viewed by people throughout time.

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About the Author:

Sylvia A. Johnson has had a long career as a writer of nonfiction for young people. Her books on scientific and historical subjects have received many awards. A recent title for Atheneum, Tomatoes, Potatoes, Corn, and Beans: How the Foods of the Americas Changed Eating Around the World, was chosen as a Notable Children's Trade Book in the Field of Social Studies and was also named a 1998 New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age. It was while doing research for that book that Ms. Johnson saw some fascinating old maps, which led her to think about the role of maps in human history and to write Mapping the World.

In addition to her career as a writer, Sylvia A. Johnson also works as a freelance editor of books and educational materials for young people. She enjoys gardening and traveling, especially to warm climates during cold winters in Minnesota, where she makes her home. Ms. Johnson lives in Minneapolis in a gray-shingled house that she shares with a gray-striped cat named Smokey.

From Library Journal:

Grade 4-6-In a clear and informative progression, Johnson traces the history of cartography from an early Babylonian image scratched into a clay tablet to maps developed with satellite and computer technology. Early maps, the author notes, were often infused with the theology of the period and as exploration into unknown areas expanded, so did the information recorded on them. Early mapmakers and geographers are identified: Claudius Ptolemaeus (or Ptolemy); Matthew Paris; Martin Waldseem?ller, who was the first to identify the New World as "America"; and Gerardus Mercator, the 16th-century creator of the Mercator projection still used in cartography today. The slender book contains a number of clear full-color reproductions that suitably illustrate Johnson's descriptions. The writing is smooth and lucid and the material is well organized. The further reading list flags books of interest to young readers. Attractive, interesting, and well written, this title will be an asset to any collection.
Donna L. Scanlon, Lancaster County Library, PA
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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