bookish, a weblog by George Girton

Children Map the World . . . . . jul 24 2005 — bookish126.dat

I admire and enjoy the maps in 'Children Map the World' which arrived for review from ESRI press last week, completely unsolicited. These unforgettable images of the world, rendered by children in a global map competition, are beautiful, moving, and profound. The story of the competition is interesting, too. It was started by the cartographer Barbara Petchenik, and over time she interviewed over a thousand kids from all over the world about their cartographic knowledge. It turns out that kids prefer clear and uncluttered maps without too many extraneous elements. No surprise there!

Lower-quality web scans of the prizewinning images can be seen online for free, but the book is worth buying, either for yourself or as a gift for your favorite world history teacher or school administrator. Or kid! The quality of the images in the book -- a typical uncompromisingly good ESRI production on heavy stock -- will change the way you think about both maps and children.

I enjoyed Savitri Brant's light and clear book design, and appreciate ESRI's good efforts in designing the book. I know from Richard Hendel's excellent and wonderful book, 'On Book Design', that books which are designed have no commercial advantage over books which are not. Thanks, ESRI!

The maps (by children, don't forget) are elegant; intense and heartfelt, by turns altruistic, pessimistic, hopeful and inspiring. "Children Map the World" is worth re-examination, to think and re-think what the art means, and as a reminder that even the youngest of us can take a global perspective, sharing our fears and hopes.

Only a few entries actually 'map' the world. Most, although they contain maps, are art from starting blocks to world competition winner. My favorite example of the former though, is the thematic map 'The Horse Population of the World", by Taiga Marthens, showing the size of each country drawn to reflect the number of horses in the country, the number also being shown.

Global warming and pollution are recurrent themes of the maps. One particularly arresting image, "No Smoking" by Horvath Agnes, 15 years old in 1993, renders the world on the bowl of a pipe, with puffs of smoke in the form of deathheads floating out the top. An ominous image, not easily shaken.

Another entry shows a band-aid strategically placed on top of the northern ozone hole.

Imaginative and whimsical images abound. The continents are shown as leaves, fish, even collections of paper sheets. One of my favorites was 'Snail Planet' by Lazar Czvjetkovic (age 12) showing the earth in orbit as a snail crawling around a snail sun, with other snail planets of the solar system in similar slow orbits. The planet's motion may be slow, but it is inexorable.

Don't you dare delay. Whirl your way over to amazon.com and click yourself a copy of Children Map the World: Selections from the Barbara Petchenik Children's World Map Competition [buy at amazon] . It's a colossal bargain.

The Intelligent Eye: Learning to Think by Looking at Art [buy at amazon] . by David N. Perkins

On Book Design [buy at amazon] . by Richard Hendel

Half Blood Prince . . . . . jul 18 2005 — bookish125.dat

If you always drive everywhere, you can lose the sense of how easy it is to walk, even for relatively long distances. With gas prices the way they are, I walked over to a nearby park in Culver City, where the Shakespeare Scum were putting on the Shrew Cycle, or as they named it "Shrew Variations."

The 'Scum started off with Shakespeare as playwright, but Kate became dissatisfied with the result, and quit the play just before the intermission, unable to finish her famous speech "why are we soft?" Instead she shouted "I'M OUT", and walked offstage, returning for a few moments to berate Will Shakespeare himself for a bit before her final exit. After intermission the story resumed as "The Shrew Orchard," with Petrucchio a rich Moscow nightclub owner there to buy the prune orchard. Next stop, "Waiting for the Shrew," soon followed by "Shrew on a Hot Tin Roof. The show continues next week, in that little park at the intersection of Braddock and Motor, and is free. Sit on the grass, or bring your own chairs, and bring a dollar for the freshly popped popcorn at intermission.

Of course, I also walked over to the local supermarket on Friday and picked up a copy of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince [buy at amazon] . by J.K. Rowling. This means that I know (since I have read the book) who the Half Blood Prince is, who was killed, and who did the killing. Children's literature? Perhaps. In this sixth tome of the series the world is already well on its way to a dark wasteland, with death and destruction at every turn. The frightful dementors (if given an opportunity they suck your soul out through your face, after which you're not good for much) have escaped from their role as prison guards at Askhaban State Prison, but fortunately don't put in an appearance. Harry and Professor Dumbledore take many a trip down memory lane through the illuminative magic of the 'pensieve' a bowl into which you pour a silvery strand of (yours or someone else's) memory, and inhabit it realistically for a few moments of present time, sharing the experience with your guest. And a good thing, too. Harry will need the knowledge of Lord Voldemort's early childhood in the seventh and one presumes final tome of the series, which can appear not a moment too soon.