There's a Map on My Lap!: All About Maps (Cat in the Hat's Learning Library)

The Cat in the Hat's Learning Library books are all great tools to get beginning readers to read and explore different topics at the same time.

There's a Map on my Lap is my favorite in this series. It explains in typical Cat in the Hat rhyme and stance all the different uses for maps.

It explains the difference between a globe and a map, what latitudes and longitudes and other features of maps are. You learn to read a map by using the windrose or a grid.

The book goes well beyond town or country maps. It features weather maps, topographical maps and even marine charts.

What truly separates this book from the crowd: it is shockfull of hands-on things to do. It begins with peeling an orange while leaving the skin in one piece to demonstrate what a world map should really look like - brilliant idea! Then it goes on to make a map of your room, town, imaginary countries. Or how to measure the length of a curved road on a map using a straight ruler and string.

At the end of the book you find a glossary that explains the "big" words like topographical map and others again. Also a list of more books about maps and globes for children.

If you like doing hands on things with your preschool through 2nd graders this book is for you! Hours of fun and education all rolled into one big happy Cat in the Hat poem.

This book is classic Dr. Seuss...fun, silly, and children don't realize they're learning something. Great book for teaching about maps. I bought this for my 6 year old prior to going on vacation. We had been looking at maps and talking about what states we'd be driving through on our trip. He enjoyed listening to the book and because of the way the information is presented (fun and silly rhymes), he has retained what he learned. He has even referred back to specific bits of information we read from the book (i.e. Never Eat Shredded Wheat to remember North, East, South and West.)

The back of the book contains a glossary of terms mentioned in the book. Highly recommended as an additional tool for teaching about maps.

Very clever way to teach kids (and adults) about reading maps! The rhymes are cute and easy to follow, illustrations are nice and it introduces a great skill and encourages kids to map out their room, home and surrounding neighborhood. Learning and hands on, it was perfect for my 1st grader!

We have the new learning Dr Seuss Books on horses, maps and anatomy. As a parent, grandparent, sibling or teacher; they are fun! to read aloud to children. They contain a surprising amount of informative content. Beginning Geography workbook Grades K-2 (also sold on Amazon) and this book combined make great teaching tools for 4-6 year old children. We recently did 3 activities from the geography book with a small group of home school children ages 4,5,6. The same night I was reading this book to daughter, and it happened to review the "compass rose", using "scale" to measure maps, and use of symbols on maps that we had studied during the day with the geography work sheets.

This is a fun book for introducing young children to maps. I will use it in my early childhood classroom but I wish I'd had it when my own chldren were young. They would have loved it!

This book was basically great, although some of the Dr. Seuss-style rhyming was just a tad confusing in the map-reading examples. I'd recommend adults read it over first, and if you are reading to--or with--kids who aren't familiar with the Seuss style, just skip over some of the names. Other kids may enjoy that part.

Overall this is a great book on map reading. Parents may want to read it with their kids before going on a road trip, have them practice some map-reading skills at home (including a blueprint-style map of the rooms in their home), then try to find some very simple maps for the kids to read on the road, depending on their ages.

This summer we organized some day camps to help young family members learn to read, which included numerous treasure hunts to practice reading skills. On the final day we read this book, then the big blowout treasure hunt led them to a hidden bag of puzzle pieces. When they put the puzzle together, it was a map of a couple rooms in our house, with red arrows pointing to the location of their next clue. The kids loved it (and they didn't mind the treasure chest full of little prizes after the final clue either)! I think it reinforced how much they could learn by reading books, and how they could put that knowledge to use.

I haven't seen many kids' books that teach map reading, so this is a great addition to a child's library, especially if you help them follow up with some practice. We females tend to have brains that don't automatically process maps, so this may be especially helpful for young girls--if they're anything like me, anyway!

I purchased this for my 4 & 6-year-old grandsons who have zero map knowledge due to Google, Waze, etc. My daughter-in-law tells me they thoroughly enjoyed listening to the book and the six-year-old is reading it on his own.

I bought this book for the Social Studies department where I work. The first grade teacher has used it and said she loved it. It has to be broken down and analyzed in sections because to do the whole book at once would be an informational overload for the age group that Dr. Seuss targets. I used the book for my 6th graders and it was just funny and kiddish enough to be really engaging. I'm very glad I purchased it.

We love ALL things Cat In The Hat and this book doesn't disappoint! Such cute rhymes and good imformation.

Talked ALL about maps. All kinds of maps, how to read maps, what maps are used for what etc. Very great info. Kind of bored my 3 year old a bit but would be great in a school setting. Cat in the hat learning library rocks!