Children Read and Learn: New Book Does Both

The Little Man in the Map: With Clues to Remember all 50 States

Over the Christmas holiday season, my sister brought her two sons down from the mountains. I don't get to see them very much, so it was a great time to see how much they had grown, what they had learned, and just to hang out with my nephews. We opened gifts, ate pie, and played in the snow. My sister's older boy - James - is turning out to be a real smart, inquisitive kid. He is always asking questions, wanting to know how something works, or why things are the way they are.

On the night before Christmas, after a big dinner and lots of family talk, I took James upstairs to read to him before bed. One of the books that I read was The Little Man In the Map by E. Andrew Martonyi and beautifully illustrated by Ed Olson. Boy what a great time James and I had reading this book.


Starting off in the all too familiar school classroom, the kids in the book are given the task of learning all the states by name and memorizing their place. Stuck with the task, the kids soon begin to visualize the states as things they can remember - Louisiana is a boot, Minnesota looks like a hat, and so on. Magically, as the kids place these states in order, they come to see a man inside the map who comes alive and teaches the kids about the rest of the states.

Written in rhyme, the book creates images for every state that are fun to look at and learn. After reading the book to James, he didn't want to go to sleep. No, another reading was in order! The same thing happened the next two nights; James wanted me to read The Little Man In the Map to him. He loved the character MinIow MisArkLou (the man in the map) and would list off the states that made him up.

I talked to my sister - now back up in the mountains - after New Years. James now knows all 50 states by heart. He is very proud of this fact, especially since he is the only one in his grade that knows them all. Thanks to E. Andrew Martonyi's great imagination and Ed Olson's lively illustrations, my nephew James is now the geography whiz of his class.

This is one of those books that kids love to read over and over again - all the while learning something very important. Every kid should have the opportunity to learn geography and the states this way: its fun, its easy, and it works.

Buy Secure on Amazon or from the Publisher.

Related Books, Author Interviews, and Writing Jobs by Keyword

Use the Search Function at the Top to find Other Books and Author Interviews