A BOOK OF MAPS FOR YOU... Find Your Way To This one!

 Maps intrigue me. Paper maps. Especially the ones bound in an old-school elementary geography book with keys and compasses and colors. Now I rely mostly on digital map/GPS apps to make my way by car and on foot in unfamiliar places. Even so, when I can plan ahead I'll find and print a map of a new area to set a template in my mind about where I'll be and what will surround me.

NEAL PORTER BOOKS,
2025

A BOOK OF MAPS FOR YOU appears to be exactly what its title says. Written by Lourdes Heuer and illustrated by Maxwell Eaton III, the cover makes clear that these maps are child-produced, hand-made depictions of the most important elements of a neighborhood. 

Take more than a few minutes of your time to examine that title page. It launches the story behind these maps and the young person who is creating them. A skylight reveals two little ducks who will appear throughout, a rolled rug and dozing cat, with a view over the shoulder of this creator out to the world that is being mapped.

One page turn presents an interesting conceptual view form above, the completed project laid out on the work table with a line of text above it: "I made a book of maps." 

Each turn then presents a similar birds-eye view used by maps with only a few text inserts.The selection of maps shifts throughout the neighborhood, with various featured aspects becoming simple details or taking center stage. Some are maps of interiors of buildings, occasional shifts to face-on perspectives of things like the library and librarian, even an imaginary pirate island. The reader follows a journey through a delightful neighborhood, then through places depicted become progressively more warm and meaningful, until we arrive inside the home. Finally we see a plan for a fully-fitted bedroom where we began (when it was bare). The closing spreads reveal the ultimate purpose of these maps, and their true value. 

In a time when empathy feels fragile, if not entirely missing, here is a character who models a way to put yourself in someone else's shoes.Then they find ways to make the journey of others safer, more welcoming. The story itself is rich and worthy, with very adept writing and word-choices. The illustrations do exactly what the best will do-- they take the conceptual content and contribute to bringing it to life, to expanding its potential, to making readers full partners in the journey. There are many worthy books about moving that focus on the emotional journey of the child who is moving away, or the child who is moving to someplace new. This remarkable book transcends both with pragmatism and purpose.

I hope that this book finds its way into many conversations among kids and adults about what maps really are, what purposes they serve, what memories they might trigger, and what perspectives they lend to the stories of our lives. And how we can map our way to others and their needs.