Putting Australia on the map by Carole Wilkinson
Wild Dog Books, 2020. ISBN: 9781742035932. 32pp., hbk.
Highly recommended. Australians, we can be extremely proud of our
own Carole Wilkinson with her 2020 release of this special book Putting
Australia on the Map which is published by Wild Dog books,
Abbotsford Victoria.
Librarians, do not allow this book to be processed and then lost on
the shelves in your schools. Promote this book particularly to
teachers. Hardback, A4, landscape orientated, sepia toned; this is
an attractive book. Layout and design are by Eion Pty Ltd.
This is a book for teaching and learning about cartography from the
time of Ptolemy (150CE) to Matthew Flinders (early 1800s). It is a
book for every student of the history and geography of the world
from the perspective of the discovery and progressive piercing
together of the map of the coastline of Australia and its
geographical location in relation to the rest of the world. This
book has appeal and relevance to all students of every age but is
particularly pertinent to the Year 4 curriculum.
Putting Australia on the Map is not a boring factual book.
Carole Wilkinson, as we know from Dragonkeeper, does her
research and is a storyteller who knows how to captivate the reader.
The historical narrative is lively, informative and accompanied by
images of detailed, beautiful, ancient maps courtesy of the National
Library of Australia, the State Libraries of Queensland and Victoria
and Wikimedia Commons, as attributed for the student right at the
very front of the book.
The text and the maps track the sequence of visitors to Australia's
shores and the development of knowledge of Australia's shoreline
within the context of world (particularly European) quest for
discovery, trade, scientific knowledge etc.
Putting Australia on the Map is easily navigated. The reader
is assisted by the Contents page (with provocative title pages), an
excellent Glossary and Index.
This is one fabulous resource for Australian schools and for the
private collections of lucky children. Highly Recommended.
Wendy Jeffery