A Book of Maps for You
by Lourdes Heuer; illus. by Maxwell Eaton III
Primary    Porter/Holiday    40 pp.
4/25    9780823455706    $18.99
e-book ed.  9780823462230    $11.99

Narrated in the style of a personalized guidebook, the story unfolds as a series of maps, introducing a child to a new home and its environs within a vibrant community. Aerial and wide-angle shots highlight varied neighborhoods in the town—from the elementary school and a little farm to its public library and park—creating a sense of a thriving space and setting all the town’s residents in their respective establishments. Vivid watercolors and hand-drawn images on double-page spreads encourage repeated viewings to absorb all the details. Deviating from a linear narrative sequence of events, similar to the panoramic style of cartoonist Chris Ware, this cartographic tour invites readers to engage their observational and spatial relational skills in an interactive format. At the same time, its welcoming tone (from a narrator who may just have personal experience with what the child is going through) delivers an uplifting message that beckons the newcomer, allaying the character’s—and maybe some readers’—anxieties and mixed feelings about moving to a new home.

From the March/April 2025 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.