Geography Books For 12 Year Olds

[Kizzy Burnworth]

Asa 5th grade teacher, I was so committed to making sure my kids knew geography that the first big test that they had to retake until 100% was the continents and oceans of the world. (To me, it was inexcusable NOT to know this by 5th grade.) We got that out of the way and build the foundation for lots of other history and geographic curriculum. Kids must know that their city, state, and country is not the only one in the world!

What a Map Can Do by Gabrielle Balkan, illustrated by Alberto Lot

A raccoon shows us all about maps, starting with a map of his room and then the house. He explains how maps show us where to go and asks a lot of questions. See a city map, a museum map, a body map, a road map, a national forest map, a trail map, and even a weather map. Each map includes a key and explanation. Use this geography book to make your own maps.

Manhattan: Mapping the Story of an Island by Jennifer Therme

Read about history of the island of Manhattan, starting with the Lenape people and continuing to the present day with subways and bridges and 1.6 million people. This book is packed with information about the city including the ecosystem, fires, and slavery. Gorgeous illustrations and readable informative writing, this oversized picture book will interest all readers, especially those who like American history or live in the New York area. Highly recommended.

Melissa Taylor, MA, is the creator of Imagination Soup. She's a mother, former teacher & literacy trainer, and freelance education writer. She writes Imagination Soup and freelances for publications online and in print, including Penguin Random House's Brightly website, USA Today Health, Adobe Education, Colorado Parent, and Parenting. She is passionate about matching kids with books that they'll love.

We've just started "Around the World in a Hundred Years". And I 3rd the Holling books - Paddle is a great introduction to geography & maps. It's very fun to make anything a geography book. We know where the Panama Canal is thanks to "Mike Mulligan", Scandinavia thanks to the Vikings, Madagascar thanks to the movie (no, not a book, LOL - but very effective).

If you're interested in paying for a resource, All Through the Ages has a fairly large section organized geographically. You can see a sample containing the complete "China" section in .pdf format here.

Here you will find a carefully curated selection of books that explore the wonders of the world around us, from the natural environment to human geography and global cultures. Whether you are a parent, teacher, or librarian, these booklists provide a wealth of options for engaging young readers with all things geographical. Our lists of recommended geography topic books for primary schools contain specially selected books to support the teaching of the curriculum at KS2, KS1 and EYFS. When we choose texts for our lists, we select only the best quality classroom books based on age suitability, quality of text, visual appeal, readability, level of interest for children, underlying values, curriculum relevance and print production quality.

Our review panel of teachers and education experts test the geography books and provide information about which books are best for engaging children and supporting the curriculum effectively, as well as writing detailed reviews for some of the books that we feature. In addition to our Review Panel feedback, we work with a team of booksellers to make sure that the books on our lists are readily available from publishers in order to supply them to schools and classrooms. Schools can buy full packs of most of our topic booklists directly from Peters.

If I have to make a giant, blanket statement, then: all reading is good reading. But I think we, as caregivers, balance the sprinkles -- in our children's lives *and* our own -- by adding in more challenging reading wherever and however we can. I don't expect my 9 and 7yo to seek out harder books, nor be mature enough to have the intrinsic motivation that requires, but I can read those books aloud. I can check out those books on audio from the library and include them in the stack I leave for my kids in their room. I can read both fun and funny *and* more challenging poetry at breakfast.

I honestly don't think it's either/or -- and let me be super clear, *nor do I think it should be.* Older books are not inherently better than newer books -- there are some absolutely terrible old books, and there are some absolutely excellent new books -- and the sooner we all get over that narrow mindset, the better. It's both/and, and we're lucky to have so much variety and choice.

What we are seeing in schools is a lack of attention coupled with an unfamiliarity with complex language and sentence structure. But even reluctant readers can get that from read-alouds and audiobooks.

So today\u2019s homeschooling isn\u2019t going quite according to plan. Instead I\u2019m going to share some new books we\u2019ve been enjoying. Tomorrow I\u2019m looking forward to sharing a \u2018How We Homeschooled Today\u2019 guest post by , and and I will be sharing information about the Educating Otherwise UnConference, taking place in London on 27th April. To get the UnConference post, make sure you\u2019re signed up to the newsletter:

This was recommended to us by a homeschooling friend (thank you, P!), and I knew it was tailor-made for my myth-mad son. The illustrations are beautiful, and the myths come from all over the world\u2014a good way to branch out from Greek or Norse myths if you\u2019ve exhausted all the stories from those cultures! Also a nice way to incorporate some geography. Amazon says age 9-12, but my 6 year old is enjoying it. For younger children be aware that obviously some of the creatures are pretty scary!

We\u2019ve been enjoying this as a read-aloud recently. I like that it gives bite-size pieces of information about a range of subjects, enough to be interesting and informative without getting bogged down in too much detail. We read about Mexico\u2019s Cave of the Crystals, which has gypsum crystals the size of a bus. (We also read about this in National Geographic\u2019s Ultimate Rock-Opedia, but there was a bit too much detail on crystal formation for our current level of expertise!) Also good for geography. Amazon says age 7-11, but my 6 year old is enjoying it and I think 5 year olds would also like it as a read-aloud.

Like Mythopedia, this is organised by continent. It explores what different cultures have thought about life after death, so has some overlap with mythology. There are topics you may well know about\u2014Aztecs, the Terracotta Army, Egyptian afterlife, Valhalla, Hades\u2014but many that are completely new to me: Hedu, the Yanomami Heaven, the Zulu Underworld, the Hawaiian Land of the Dead. We don\u2019t (yet\u2026) own this book, I\u2019ve just been poring over it in bookshops, so I can\u2019t give you a comprehensive review. Amazon says 9-12, obviously the subject matter might be a bit much for some but I know lots of children love this sort of thing!

One of my children is currently reading The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. The other child is reading Marcus Rashford\u2019s Breakfast Club series. For non-UK readers, Marcus Rashford is a famous footballer who in his spare time campaigns for the government to provide free school meals for underprivileged children. His books are clearly intended to encourage literacy in children who might not otherwise be keen on books, and they also make a point of including children from a wide range of backgrounds. All to the good.

I have a soft spot in my heart for Marcus Rashford, who is clearly a kind and well-intentioned man who wants to make a difference. Equally, I am a snob and instinctively value old stuff over new stuff (in all things: books, buildings, art, ideas). I\u2019m not saying these are good qualities. Clearly, the primary selling-point of the Breakfast Club books is that a footballer\u2019s name is splashed over one third of the cover, and as an old-fashioned snob I naturally prefer to see a child reading Narnia than Marcus Rashford. But I also know that few people can read an unrelieved diet of literary classics\u2014I\u2019m still enjoying Bleak House, but I raced through a Curtis Sittenfeld novel in 24 hours last week. There\u2019s more to life than E Nesbit\u2026 I think.

But I wonder (or at 3am, panic) that too much of the easy reads renders the classic literature too challenging. The harder vocabulary, longer sentences, and delayed gratification of a really good book can seem like too much effort after all the sugar sprinkles of the kind of books that come in series of 25. This isn\u2019t just reserved for new books or children\u2019s books\u2014I think Enid Blyton and Agatha Christie probably fall into the sugar sprinkles category.

So, how do you feel about your child reading easy, pacy reads, potentially \u2018written by\u2019 celebrities. How do you balance them for your child, and how do you balance them for yourself? Please share in the Comments. and might have some wise words on this too.

My son is totally into maps these days. He has a globe, a detailed atlas and he loves to draw his own maps. Today he asked me for more map resources (books, etc). I'm at a bit of a loss, so I wanted to ask here. I'm not really looking for a curriculum, per se, because it is summer & we are undergoing home renovations & I'm first trimester sick half the time...but books/videos/anything that he might enjoy.

My 7 year old sounds very similar. He's been obsessed with maps of all sorts since he was 4. It was actually a really handy hobby for him to have when I had a new baby. He spent all his time on the floor with maps spread out under him.

The best thing for him has been to ask family and friends for their old city maps. He doesn't care if a map is 30 years old - there's probably more room for adding things then anyway. He begs me to go to AAA and get maps and I have to limit how often we go. But my grandpa gave him a box full of maps from trips over many decades and those have been awesome with hours and hours and hours of examining and adding.

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