Tony Silva

Schoolside Press
The Little Man in the Map
http://www.schoolsidepress.com
$19.95


If you’re looking for a delightfully illustrated read-along book, E. Andrew Martonyi’s The Little Man in the Map is a great choice. Illustrations by Ed Olson are full of smiles and clever visualizations of… visualizations. That’s important for this book because it is an effort to make memorizing the states easier.

Start With a Premise

Every state has a unique shape and that’s the premise behind The Little Man in the Map. Take the shapes of Minnesota (looks like a hat), Iowa (is a face), Missouri (is a shirt), Arkansas (is a pair of pants) and Louisiana (is a boot). Put them together and they are Mr. MinIow MisArklou. We’ll call him Mr. Mim for short.

There you have it. The whole substance of the book is built on “Mr. Mim”, the Man in the Map together with his friends, favorite foods and other things that surround his life. The premise begins to fall apart a few miles to the East as Tennessee and North Carolina become a table and the states just below become the legs. Under the table lies Florida, a turtle’s head.

Cute But…

This is a cute approach to memorizing the lay of our land. However, the analogies become even more strained than the poetry the farther away from Mr. Mim you travel. Our 8 year-old made it half way through a reading before his eyes glazed over. This wonderfully whimsical idea for teaching geography would be a sure winner if it were used for some other topic targeted to a younger child.

Sounds like we absolutely wouldn’t recommend The Little Man in the Map, right? Actually, we do recommend the book. Here's why. While the approach did not work for our family on the first reading for the reasons noted above, what we discovered is that readers are head over heels for this title. http://shopping.familymentors.com/Books-1000-0978510046-The_Little_Man_In_the_Map_With_Clues_To_Remember_All_50_States#reviews”>Reader Reviews average over 4.5 stars (yes, that's 4.5 out of five).

So what did we miss? In our first read through MIM, I read the book like I would have read any other picture book to our child. What I missed the first time was the stop and talk about the pictures part. It doesn’t matter (from a learning perspective) whether the poetry is not a classic or the analogies are unrealistic. What matters in this approach is that it be memorable so it can take advantage of the fact that every child is equipped with something parents often overlook: imagination. My wife calls it the child’s “magic nation”. An imaginative and interactive reading of The Little Man in the Map will reveal why it gets rave reviews in our shopping area and why it has been a finalist for many prestigious awards.

Quibbles & Bits

There is a lot of thought put into the way Mr. Mim is introduced and the memory technique being employed. You’d think this would come with a teacher’s guide. No kidding… there is one in the works, complete with crossword puzzles, activities and games.

Apart from the fact the book is not for everybody (and what curriculum is), we have no serious complaints. It is a quality product worthy of consideration. But do an imagination check and read the reviews mentioned above before making the investment.

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