North America (Continents in Close-Up)

From School Library Journal Grade 3-8-These series entries each contain physical/political maps of individual countries, states, or regions as well as continental maps showing population, beliefs, climate and vegetation, ecology and environment, economy, and politics and history. Information panels give almanac-type information on individual countries or states; each spread also has drawings and/or text about physical features, famous people, animals, plants, etc. The books are well indexed and include cross-references. The physical/political maps are unspectacular. A significant part of each one is lost in the gutter. South America's map key does not specify city sizes (the box is there, but the symbols are missing). In North America, there is no color coding for the graph showing main religious groups on this continent, and the religions are not listed in ascending or descending order. The climate, economy, and environmental maps are quite clear, although there are no cities and no state or country boundaries to help students pinpoint what they are seeing. The historical maps are almost useless. Students can easily glean the information presented here from general encyclopedias, atlases, and almanacs. There is not enough specific material about any particular continent, country, or state to make these volumes useful for reports. National Geographic World Atlas for Young Explorers (1998) and Dorling Kindersley Children's Atlas (2000) both have better maps.