City Atlas

Any parent or teacher who has enjoyed sharing Maps or Atlas of Adventure will undoubtedly fall upon this new title from the same publishing house.  With its attractive cloth binding and generous format, the City Atlas embarks on a world tour of cities, not all of them capitals but each one memorable for its history or setting.  Each city is colourfully presented in a schematic map that aims to capture the spirit of the place, the people, culture, food or buildings.  Key landmarks and iconic buildings jostle alongside famous people and cultural icons.  Text is kept to a minimum, largely in the form of exhortations to ‘Go Gothic at the Cathedral de Barcelona’ or ‘Start your own Toy Story at FAO Schwartz’ in New York,  But there is a surprising amount of information packed into each spread, from details such as country, population and flag to a small taste of the language with a child greeting the reader (‘Hello’, ‘Hi there’ or ‘Salut’), though it’s a pity there is no phonetic pronunciation for Cyrillic or other scripts for Mumbai, Tokyo, Hong Kong or Seoul.  Martin Haake’s illustrations are a delight, quirky, detailed and colourful, oddly reminiscent of the Czech artist Miroslav Sasek, whose illustrated guides were many a child’s first introduction to other countries.  A search and find game on each spread encourages the reader to explore every city and to spot the details that make each one unique.  Lovely for sharing and good enough for a birthday or Christmas gift, the ultimate accolade for a non-fiction book.