Mapping Penny's World

When Lisa's class turns to map-making, the young girl decides that, in addition to mapping her own bedroom, as part of her school assignment, she will also map some of the places frequented by her beloved Boston terrier, Penny. From that oh-so-convenient dumping ground for canine treasures (bones, squeaky toys, purloined shoes) that is also known as the front and back yard, to nearby Meridian Park, with its spaces for running and romping, Lisa captures Penny's world, creating clearly-labeled and well-organized maps that convey all the important and necessary information.

One of those books that I like more in concept, than in actuality, Mapping Penny's World is a low three-star title for me. The 'story,' such as it is, wasn't show more particularly engaging, and while I like the idea of mapping one's world, the execution just didn't interest me that much. Leedy's illustrations, created digitally, were no more appealing than the text, and struck me as rather flat and dull. The image of Penny peering into a fish-tank, superimposed on an image of Lisa's bedroom, seemed particularly poorly done, as if the artist had accidentally stuck part of one scene onto another. This seems to be very well liked by other online reviewers, so take my own view with a grain of salt, but this was only a so-so book for me. show less

Mapping Penny's World provides an interesting and fun basic introduction to mapmaking and map-reading for children in elementary and early middle school grades. The concept of having children (students) produce detailed personal maps, or maps for a favourite pet (Penny the dog, in this case) is ingenious and the illustrations are bright and cheerful (using a book such as Mapping Penny's World with a child or a group of children, either at home or at school, would likely not only make maps, map-reading and map-making enjoyable and diverting, I believe it would also make the latter more personally significant, and not some vague, confusing idea with no personal connections). And while I, myself, actually find the maps and the mapmaking show more instructions presented in the book somewhat confusing and complicated, I realise that this is primarily due to the fact that I have some rather significant visual/spatial perception issues, and that as an introduction to basic mapmaking skills, Mapping Penny's World is visually bright, colourfully detailed, and with just enough information presented to make the book informative without being overwhelming. That being said, I really do not understand why the author has not included any additional information at the back of the book. A list of supplemental activities, suggestions on how to teach mapmaking and map-reading skills (perhaps for students/children who are like me, who have visual/spatial problems) would have made Mapping Penny's World a much better and more useable teaching/learning tool. show less

Great book I read while at the library. At school the girl gets and assignment to make a map. So the girl goes home and makes one in relation to her Boston Terrier. She goes on to make maps inside her house, inside her bedroom, at the part, of her street, all beautifully done. We used to have a couple of Boston Terriers, (sigh, thinking of them). Great book. I would think it would be great fun and a good learning exercise to make maps with your children.

Great book I read while at the library. At school the girl gets and assignment to make a map. So the girl goes home and makes one in relation to her Boston Terrier. She goes on to make maps inside her house, inside her bedroom, at the part, of her street, all beautifully done. We used to have a couple of Boston Terriers, (sigh, thinking of them). Great book. I would think it would be great fun and a good learning exercise to make maps with your children.

Mr. Jayson is teaching the class about maps and and all of the components that goes along with reading and understanding maps. Lisa learns about making an appropriate title for a map, and all about the symbols and what a scale is used for. What a great idea for children to learn to read and understand scale and distance! I thought this was a great Idea. I didn't like the story of her dog penny personally but I do believe it's a great Idea to draw a 3rd grader into the story while teaching them all about maps. Great math tool as well. I found that the illustrations were very attractive in that they were clear and precise.

SUMMARY: Mapping Penny's World is about a child and their dog who discover and learn all about mapping together! They travel all over their town together and talk about different routes to take to get to their desinations in the best way.
PERSONNAL REACTION: I LOVE BOSTON TERRIERS! I loved this book, because it is filled with so much rich information! I liked that it was all a learning expierince a child went through with their dog.
CLASSROOM EXTENSION: This could be easily incorporated into a lesson over mapping, and would also be a cute way to develop a lesson on using the buddy system before a big field trip!

This book shows how a little girl makes maps of her favorite places. This would be a great book to tie into a lesson when talking about maps and parts of maps. The illustrations are colorful and very detailed. I think that this book would be good for any age that learns the basic skills of maps.