The Road to There: Mapmakers and Their Stories

Winner of the 2004 Norma Fleck Award for Canadian childrens non-fictionHonor Book for the Society of School Librarians Internationals Best Book Award Social Studies, Grades 7-12Shortlisted for the Children's Literature Roundtable Information Book of the Year2003 winner of the Mr. Christies Book Award SealShortlisted for the 2004 Norma Fleck Award for Canadian Childrens Non-fictionIncluded on VOYAs ninth annual Nonfiction Honor ListSelected for inclusion in CCBC Choices 2004: the best-of-the-year list published by the Cooperative Childrens Book center of the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin-MadisonNamed Notable Book by the International Reading Associations Childrens Book Award in the intermediate nonfiction category Road maps; sailors charts; quilts; songlines; gilded parchment covered with jewel-like colors; computer printouts to guide us through the strange, vast, beautiful, and mysterious frontiers of the world of maps, Val Ross presents the men and women who made them.Here are some of the unexpected stories of historys great mapmakers: the fraud artists who deliberately distorted maps for political gain, Captain Cook, the slaves on the run who found their way thanks to specially-pieced quilts, the woman who mapped Londons streets, princes, doctors, and warriors. These are the people who helped us chart our way in the world, under the sea, and on to the stars.With reproductions of some of the most important maps in history, this extraordinary book, packed with information, is as fascinating and suspenseful as a novel.From the Hardcover edition.