Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #263693 in Books
• Published on: 2002-03-04
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 40 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780803725799
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Amazon.com Review
Beautiful crackle-varnished pictures (like an old, old world globe) set this playful and informative collection of travel verses apart. Author J. Patrick Lewis explores the world through unconventional poems and riddles, accompanied by illustrator Alison Jay's oil paintings, seen behind a delicate web of wiggly lines in antique-map shades of blue, tan, and green. The quirky verses feature exotic destinations, amazing explorers, and fascinating trivia about geography. (In "One Square Foot Per Person, Please," Lewis writes: "Did you know that all the people / in the world could stand shoulder / to shoulder in a space the size / of the Indonesian island of Bali? / And if they did? / How jolly!") Young readers who wonder why the Red Sea is red, where they can ride a bullet train, or what the difference is between latitude and longitude will get a mini education in this thoughtful and witty picture book. Lewis's previous titles include Doodle Dandies and A Book of Firsts, while Alison Jay's lovely illustrations can be found in Picture This and several others. (Ages 5 and older) --Emilie Coulter

From Publishers Weekly
In Lewis's (A Burst of Firsts) witty and fact-filled collection of poems, the narrator of the opening poem urges readers to "Discover the world of GE-OG-RA-PHY!" and recommends "traveling by poem." The poet examines not only the explorers (Christopher Columbus, Ferdinand Magellan, etc.) themselves, but enough odd places and names to intrigue and tickle young readers. He offers a series of riddles about famous cities and facts about the globe ("Did you know [that] 27 Eiffel Towers and Mount Everest are equally tall?") as well as helpful mnemonic devices (e.g., in "How a Cave Will Behave": "A stalactite drips down from the ceiling./ A stalagmite grows up from the ground"). Lewis's verbal somersaults, both whimsical and plentiful, pepper the volume. As two men sit on a hilltop watching the aurora borealis, the speaker sees "clouds go by/ in colored thunderwear"; another tells of an "Archie fellow that I know/ [who] lived on an archi-pel-ago." But he and Jay (Picture This) also convey a sobering message in "Two Animals Talking": a boy says to a beetle, " `Behold all we have conquered, and/ The continents we've crossed!'/ `But since you always win,' said Beetle,/ `What have others lost?' " as the artwork shows a dark billowing cloud from a smokestack and a man chopping down a tree. The artist's many bird's-eye views brim with easy-to-recognize landmarks. She overlays each illustration with a crackle-glass web of lines. A full-scale treat for the armchair traveler. Ages 5-up.

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From Booklist
Gr. 3-5, younger for reading aloud. Teachers desirous of introducing poetry throughout the curriculum will find plenty of poems here for the geography unit. From a pithy, informative verse on the Yellow, Red, Black, and Dead Seas to a fanciful dialogue between the two poles and the equator, Lewis crafts geographical ideas and terms into poems with facility and wit. The handsome illustrations take full advantage of the book's large format, sometimes placing a series of small pictures on a page, sometimes spotlighting a single picture over a double-page spread. The delicately shaded oil paintings have a crackled varnish, giving them a look of centuries-old paintings. Yet they have a modern spirit--sophisticated, yet still quite accessible--making an appealing package for children. Carolyn Phelan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Customer Reviews

"Travel by Poem....."
"So many places have fabulous names./Like Fried, North Dakota,/The Court of St. James./Siberia, Nigeria, Elyria, Peru,/The White Nile, Black Sea,/And Kalamazoo!/The Great Wall of China, South Pole and Loch Ness,/And 104 Fairview - that's my address!// Thousands of spaces are places to be-/Discover the World of GE-OG-RA-PHY!// Travel by boat or by car or by plane/To visit East Africa, Singapore, Spain./Go by yourself or invite a good friend,/But traveling by poem is what I recommend." J. Patrick Lewis takes the reader on a marvelous geographic journey through poetry. From those who discovered and mapped our world, Columbus, Magellan, and Marco Polo, and amazing phenomena, the Aurora Borealis, San Adreas Fault, stalactites, and stalagmites, to oceans, islands, mountains, places, names, and geographic terms, Mr Lewis fills his poems with the many wonders of our amazing world. Each clever and creative verse is full of interesting and engaging facts, trivia, and fascinating details, and complemented by Alison Jay's beautiful and expressive, evocative artwork, in the soft subdued tones of old maps and globes. Together word and art bring geography to life with imagery, magic, and wit. Perfect for youngsters 9-12, A World Of Wonders is an innovative and inventive collection that challenges the imagination and sends it soaring. "Make the Earth your companion./Walk lightly on it, as other creatures do."

What a Great Read! Perfect for you & your kids!
What a great way to introduce your kid(s) to poetry! "Knockabout and Knockaboom" was the first poem from the book I memorized with my oldest daughter. She's just six but loves the poems as well. The poems are not only fun, but educational. HIGHLY recommended!