Book Description
for Martha Maps It Out by Leigh Hodgkinson
From Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC)
“Hello, universe! I am in here somewhere, but you can’t see me because I’m really tiny.” A page of colorful stars is the backdrop for these opening lines of a picture book that proceeds to map the various spaces that young Martha inhabits. With every turn of the page, brown-skinned Martha zeroes in on something smaller in scale, moving from the universe to the solar system to the earth to her city to her street to her apartment building to her apartment to, finally, her bedroom. The friendly map illustrations are full of childlike details and appeal, including Martha’s labels for various items, such as “Darren the succulent,” “squidgy banana,” and “stool (uncomfy).” By the time she gets to mapping her room, Martha notes that “on this map, I’m not so teeny-tiny anymore! After all, how can I be so teeny-tiny … if I think about such BIG things.” A map of her thoughts reveals many of those big things, and small things too, and the connections between them. (Ages 5-8)
CCBC Choices 2023. © Cooperative Children's Book Center, Univ. of Wisconsin - Madison, 2023. Used with permission.