It’s that time of year, school is back in session, things are rolling along well — then suddenly you realize that your child’s hand-me-down atlas is sadly outdated. Perhaps we’re the only family with antiquated student atlases on the shelf with outdated political boundaries, but our latest reference title far surpasses our antiquated student atlas.
The Scholastic Canada Atlas of the World is a beautiful beginner’s reference, perfect for children ready to dig into some more substantive geographic and cultural facts than are included in the simplest primer-style atlases. Filled with gorgeous, full colour photography, vivid maps, and a wide range of geographic details, this title brings the study of place and people to life.
Opening with an introduction to the making of maps, using maps, the solar system, time zones, tectonic plates, oceans, climate, the water cycle, natural resources and much more — this wealth of information provides a rich fount to draw general knowledge from in addition to the splendid maps. Like all atlases this information is written from an old-earth perspective.
Divided into seven continental regions: North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Oceania, and Antarctica, each region is colour coded. All of the North American pages (Canada and the U.S. receive several two-page spreads each) are backed by a pastel lilac, the South American pages a pastel peach, and so on.
Each included country features a cultural and geographic overview that includes climate, economy and more, with fact boxes including: highest mountains, longest rivers, flags, life facts, trivia, time zones, latitude and longitude, and demographics. A search and find box provides cities of note and their alphanumeric reference (corresponding to a grid surrounding the page border) B5, for example is a "latitude" of B, and a "longitude" of 5 within that specific map. As the maps are all scaled separately, each includes it’s own scale and compass rose.
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