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On Saturday I held my monthly bookgroup meeting for 8-12 year olds at the local public library. These sessions are designed to encourage kids to discover new(-to-them) books and to become ever increasingly familiar with the library and the whole range of resources and services it offers (we don’t just sit and discuss a set book). This month, inspired by National Non-Fiction November, I took “maps” as my overarching theme and below you’ll find all the activities we had fun with, and which you might be able to adapt for use at home or school or your own bookgroup.

Activity 1
We started by talking about places in the UK we’ve visited outside of our home city, and then everyone found their (approximate) location of choice on this fabulous map (available from the Literary Gift Company, with other versions covering adult writers in the UK, Ireland and US)

We had a couple of “regular” atlases on hand too in case people weren’t sure where to find the place they are thinking of.

Once the kids had found the author associated with their location, their task was to find a book by that author in the library. If they couldn’t find a book by their author, we looked them up using:

Whilst this fabulous book is targeted at an adult readership, its short articles are easy for keen readers to manage.

We spent 5 minutes “tasting” the book(s) we found (looking at blurbs, covers, interior illustrations, reading the opening paragraph) and then we each shared our initial thoughts about whether our newly discovered books appealed to each of us, or if not, who we thought the books might appeal to instead.

Activity 2
This involved browsing a selection of map-themed/linked non-fiction books including:

The Big Book of Animals of the World by Ole Konnecke
Atlas of Britain Picture Book by Fiona Patchett, Stephanie Turnbull and Colin King
The Children’s Animal Atlas: An interactive and fun way to explore the animal world written by Barbara Taylor, illustrated by Katrin Wiehle
To the Edge of the Universe written by Raman Prinja, illustrated by John Hersey
City Atlas written by Georgia Cherry, illustrated by Martin Haake
The 50 States written by Gabrielle Balkan, illustrated by Sol Linero
Atlas of Adventures Activity Fun Pack by Rachel Williams and Lucy Letherland

Each reading group member had a set of questions to answer about the books, to encourage them to think about format, illustrations, factual content and to explore what they personally find appealing or interesting, especially when it comes to non-fiction books.

City Atlas was the overwhelming favourite amongst the kids on Saturday; “The cover is so cool”, “I like the colours”, “It’s easy to dip in and out of”, although one child was very cross with the book; she is a Catalan speaker, and under the entry for Barcelona (where native inhabitants are more likely to be mother-tongue Catalan speakers, rather than Spanish speakers, though all Catalan speakers will also have Spanish), only Spanish is listed as the language spoken.

This led to a fruitful discussion about what a fact is, how we check them and whether “simplified” facts ever have a place in books; not a bad discussion to have, though the child was still angry!

Another book which got special attention was To the Edge of the Universe. At the start of the day’s session we discussed how we might define what a map is. We ended up agreeing on this: “a picture representing a landscape or location, showing where things are in relationship to each other.” To the Edge of the Universe caught their imagination as it is a sort of map of the night sky, showing the orbits of planets around the sun, before moving further and further into deep space; the book unfolds to form a 4.3 metre long spread, allowing readers to physically walk through space and back in time. The unusual and outsized format of this book really caught the imagination of the kids, and it was taken to show the librarians and also reopened for each parent at pick-up time.

Activity 3
I had prepared a floor plan of the library with lots of Xs marking different locations where we would find map-related material in the library – OS maps, atlases (both in the adults and children’s section) and local historical maps. In teams the children explored the library, finding out what was at each different location, bringing back one item from each section which they thought was especially interesting. The atlases in the adult reference section of the library caused most discussion; again it was sheer size that got them excited, with one atlas being so big that two kids were needed to carry it! Whilst of course, it’s content which really matters, Saturday’s session reminded me on several occasions how important appearance is when it comes to getting kids curious about books they choose for themselves.

Activity 4

With the help of this pinterest board all about maps in children’s literature (created by Jake Hayes who writes Tygertale, an excellent blog about children’s books), I had pulled a variety of novels which include maps in their endpages from the library shelves, and we ended our session by looking at the maps they contained, and each choosing a book to take home, simply on the basis of their maps. (Just for fun, here’s a quiz about maps in books!)

Activity 5
Had we but world enough, and time (to borrow someone else’s words), we would have also marked up on a world map all the books we’ve read as a group set in different parts of the world. This could have made for a great display, but we ran out of time! If it’s an activity you would like to try, and are having difficulties finding literature from / set in various countries, here are some of my favourite resources that could help:

Do you have any other resources you’d recommend? Please do share any other map-related activities you’ve tried as a way to get children looking at new books and excited to read outside of their comfort zone.

Winter nights are undeniably great for cosy reading on the sofa, but they’re also often ideal for star gazing with kids. Early darkness, not long after getting home from school, combined with frosty, clear nights means that we’re able to look up at the moon, stars and planets long before bedtime. There’s nothing like a bit of awe and wonder before your fishfingers for supper, we’ve discovered.

Night Sky Watcher by Raman Prinja is the latest astronomy book we’ve been using to aid our journeys through the night sky. It’s chock full of practical advice, not only on how to find constellations and planets when you tilt your head up to the darkness above, but also how to make your star gazing fun and easy.

Night Sky Watcher has separate sections on observing stars, planets and “unusual sights” such as satellites, meteor showers and eclipses. Richly illustrated with astronomical photos, short boxes and bubbles deliver bite-sized parcels of facts and viewing advice, supplemented by activity ideas ranging from joining up stars to form your own constellation to acting out planetary orbits with friends. I love the book’s emphasis on going out there and doing astronomy, not just reading about it.

One aspect which has worked especially well for us is the star spotting guide; constellations are presented in their stellar context, with Prinja showing us how once we’ve found one set of stars we can use that constellation to navigate to another. “Star-hopping” has been a big hit and has really extended the girls’ previous experience and understanding of looking up at the celestial sky.

The book’s design is rather clever; it comes in a silver edged zipper pouch, which immediately suggests adventurous astronaut gear. The book isn’t “just” a book, it’s part of your night sky watching equipment designed for taking outside and using in situ. The book’s interior feels equally modern and slick with “astrofacts” appearing every few pages on an iPad/tablet screen and glossy paper adding to the sheen and sparkle of the astronomical photos.

Before heading into the dark to look for stars the girls and I boosted our star-pattern recognition skills but making our own bag of indoor magnetic stars which we could move around on the fridge and radiators to form the constellations we’d be looking for once we got outside.

We used:

Once we had a handful of glowing “stars” we set about making the constellations we wanted to look for in the night sky. Alongside Night Sky Watcher we also used this constellation crib sheet to help us place our stars in the right patterns on a radiator in a dark room.

Can you tell which constellation this is meant to be?
It’s the central part of Orion, featuring the belt, Betelgeuse (top left) and Rigel (bottom right).

Once we’d made a few constellations the girls got another idea. Recalling the time we “scribbled” with light (using a long shutter release on my camera), M and J wanted to draw the constellations in the air; in Night Sky Watcher (as in standard practice when learning about constellations), the stars are “joined up” by lines to give the constellation’s outline, and it was these outlines that the girls wanted to try and draw.

Can you recognise this constellation?! It’s meant to be Cassiopeia…

Drawing the constellations wasn’t as easy as using the light magnets to lay out the right patterns and soon our “drawing with the light of stars” became rather free-form.

Whilst making our magnetic stars we listened to:

Other activities which might go well with reading Night Sky Watcher include:

Other space books we’ve enjoyed recently are How to be a Space Explorer written by Mark Brakea nd illustrated by Emma Jones and Space Exploration: A Three-Dimensional Expanding Pocket Guide by John Holcroft. What space books have you recently discovered?

Disclosure: I was sent a free review copy of Night Sky Watcher by the publisher.