Books to Teach Young Children about Geography Compiled by Debbie Draper, March 2014

Title Summary Possible Concepts

Are We There Yet? by Alison Lester A family sets off on a three month trip around Australia. They see all the sites you would expect them to see. The story is told by Grace, one of the children on the trip.

Place Space Scale

Magic Boomerang by Mark Greenwood Using rhyme, this book visits nine spots in Australia’s outback and wilderness areas.

Place Environment

You and Me Murrawee by Kerri Hashimi A child looks back 200 years ago in Australia. Each illustration depicts the little Aboriginal girl and the girl telling the story in the same place but at a different time in history. Set in South Australia along the Murray River. The book is filled with beautiful nature illustrations.

Place Change Environment

My Place by Nadia Wheatley & Donna Rawlins A home in Sydney, Australia and its inhabitants is traced back 200 years.

Place Change

Mapping Penny’s World by Loreen Leedy. In this introduction to maps, a girl named Lisa makes maps of various places her dog Penny hangs out, from her bedroom, to her neighbourhood, to a park. This book concludes with a map of the world, with all of the places Lisa and Penny plan to visit.

Place Space Scale

Me on the Map by Joan Sweeney. Me on the Map is useful for explaining to kids how big the world is. The narrator begins by showing kids how she draws a map of her room. She then pans out to draw maps of progressively larger areas — her house, her street, her town, etc. Near the end of the book, there is a map of the world, with drawings of kids from different countries on the map. The narrator explains “…in rooms, in houses, on streets, in towns, in countries all over the world, everybody has their own special place on the map.”

Place Space Scale

Beginner’s World Atlas: A First Atlas for Beginning Explorers by National Geographic. For each continent, this atlas includes a brief written introduction, a greeting from a child, a physical map, and a political map. National Geographic also publishes excellent atlases for younger and older kids.

Place Space Scale Environment

Title Summary Possible Concepts

One World, One Day by Barbara Kerley. Celebrates the variety of ways children around the world eat breakfast, travel to school, and engage in other everyday activities. The highlight of One World, One Day is the wonderful images of children from around the world.

Place Space Interconnection

Nine O’clock Lullaby by Marilyn Singer and Frane Lessac. Describes scenes from around the world happening at the same time that the child narrator is going to bed. “9 P.M. in Brooklyn, New York, is…10 P.M. in Puerto Rico…” the story begins. Nine O’clock Lullaby describes scenes in the mid-Atlantic, England, and Zaire, among other places

Place Space Scale Interconnection

Children Just Like Me by Barnabas Kindersley and Anabel Kindersley. Contains two-page spreads each describing a child from somewhere in the world. Each spread describes a child’s family, home, favourite activities, etc.

Place Space Interconnection

If the World were a Village: A Book about the World’s People by David J. Smith takes the world down to a small scale village of 100 people so that children (and adults) can better comprehend the demographics of our planet. The book goes through such important topics as religion, language and location to give the reader an idea of what this “village” would look like. My reaction: Pure genius! The brain can better handle a number like 100 and I love how it illustrates just what a small percentage of the world tapestry people with our culture make.

Place Space Scale Interconnection

Home by Jeannie Baker Little by little, baby Tracy grows. She and her neighbours begin to rescue their street. Together, children and adults plant grass and trees and bushes in the empty spaces. They paint murals over old graffiti. They stop the cars. Everything begins to blossom. In Jeannie Baker's striking, natural collages, an urban community reclaims its land. A drab city street becomes a living, thriving neighbourhood -- a place to call home.

Place Space Interconnection Environment Change Sustainability

Belonging by Jeannie Baker An alienating city street gradually becomes a place to call home. Little by little, baby Tracy grows. She and her neighbours begin to rescue their street. Together, children and adults plant grass and trees and bushes in the empty spaces. They paint murals over old graffiti. They stop the cars. Everything begins to blossom. 'Belonging' explores the re-greening of the city: the role of community, the empowerment of people and the significance of children, family and neighbourhood in changing their urban environment. The streets gradually become places for safe children's play, and community activity and places for nature and wonder. '

Place Space Interconnection Environment Change Sustainability

Window by Jeannie Baker A mother and baby look through a window at a view of wilderness and sky as far as they can see. As Sam, the baby, grows, the view changes. At first, in a cleared patch of forest, a single house appears. A few years pass and there is a village in the distance. The village develops into a city. Sam, now a young man, gets married, has a child of his own and moves to the country. Now father and baby look through a window in their new home. The view again is of a wilderness, but in a cleared patch of forest across a dirt road a prophetic sign reads, ‘House Blocks for Sale’.

Place Space Interconnection Environment Change Sustainability

Mirror by Jeannie Baker This innovative picture book is comprised of two parts designed to be read simultaneously – one from the left, the other from the right. Page by page, we experience a day in the lives of two boys and their families - one from inner city Sydney, Australia and the other from a small, remote village in Morocco, North Africa. We see that in the context of strikingly different lifestyles, remotely different countries, landscapes, differences of clothing and all. The families are essentially the same. They care for each other, they need to belong, to be loved by their loved ones and be a part of their community. The simple truth is that even with all these differences we are all the same. We are the mirror of each other.

Place Space Interconnection Environment

The Hidden Forest by Jeannie Baker Ben holds little regard for sea life. When his fish trap is tangled in the kelp his friend Sophie helps him to free it and so takes Ben under the sea where he discovers the enchanted world of the kelp forest and its inhabitants. Ben’s experience turns him from fear and exploitation to exploration, wonder and delight in what he finds.

Place Environment Sustainability

The Story of Rosy Dock by Jeannie Baker shows the devastating effect of an introduced plant to the desert area of central Australia. The Australian desert: for thousands of years the only changes here were made by the wind, the willy-willies and sometimes the rain. Then a hundred years ago people from Europe settled in the desert and planted seeds from the other side of the world. The Story of Rosy Dock is the story of one of the settlers who followed them, and her garden in the wilderness, a garden that is beautiful – but with an unexpected flowering.

Place Space Environment Sustainability Interconnection Change

The Lorax by Dr. Seuss Long before “going green” was mainstream; Dr. Seuss's Lorax spoke for the trees and warned of the dangers of disrespecting the environment. In this cautionary rhyming tale, we learn of the Once-ler, who came across a valley of Truffula Trees and Brown Bar-ba-loots (“frisking about in their Bar-ba-loot suits as they played in the shade and ate Truffula Fruits”), and how his harvesting of the tufted trees changed the landscape forever. With the release of the blockbuster film version, the Lorax and his classic tale have educated a new generation of young readers not only about the importance of seeing the beauty in the world around us, but also about our responsibility to protect it.

Place Environment Sustainability Interconnection Change

Rosie’s Walk By Pat Hutchins Rosie the hen is going for a walk, but she'd better watch out – there's a very sneaky fox hot on her tail feathers! Rosie's Walk has become a beacon in the world of children's picture books, an ever-popular classic which generations have enjoyed. Children love the humour of this near-wordless story.

Place Space

Geography from A to Z: A Picture Glossary by Jack Knowlton and Harriet Barton (Illustrator) The sixty-three entries from A to Z describe the earth's features—its physical geography—from the highest mountain peak to the deepest ocean trench, in clear, concise terms. Each entry is beautifully illustrated in full colour. The perfect introduction to the dramatic and fascinating face of the vast world around us, Geography from A to Z includes a glossary and an index.

Environment

Geographical Concepts in the Australian Curriculum

Place - The concept of place is about the significance of places and what they are like. In the Australian Curriculum: Geography, an understanding of the concept of place is developed in the following ways:

Places are parts of the Earth’s surface that are identified and given meaning by people. They may be perceived, experienced, understood and valued differently. They range in size from a part of a room or garden to a major world region. They can be described by their location, shape, boundaries, features and environmental and human characteristics. Some characteristics are tangible, for example, landforms and people, while others are intangible, for example, scenic quality and culture.

Places are important to our security, identity and sense of belonging, and they provide us with the services and facilities needed to support and enhance our lives. Where people live can influence their wellbeing and opportunities.

The environmental characteristics of a place are influenced by human actions and the actions of environmental processes over short to long time periods.

The human characteristics of a place are influenced by its environmental characteristics and resources, relative location, connections with other places, the culture of its population, the economy of a country, and the decisions and actions of people and organisations over time and at different scales.

The places in which we live are created, changed and managed by people.

Each place is unique in its characteristics. As a consequence, the outcomes of similar environmental and socioeconomic processes vary in different places, and similar problems may require different strategies in different places.

The sustainability of places may be threatened by a range of factors, for example, natural hazards; climate change; economic, social and technological change; government decisions; conflict; exhaustion of a resource and environmental degradation.

Space - The concept of space is about the significance of location and spatial distribution, and ways people organise and manage the spaces that we live in. In the Australian Curriculum: Geography, an understanding of the concept of space is developed in the following ways:

The environmental and human characteristics of places are influenced by their location, but the effects of location and distance from other places on people are being reduced, though unequally, by improvements in transport and communication technologies.

The individual characteristics of places form spatial distributions, and the analysis of these distributions contributes to geographical understanding. The distributions also have environmental, economic, social and political consequences.

Generalisations made and relationships found at one level of scale may be different at a higher or lower level. For example, in studies of vegetation, climate is the main factor at the global scale but soil and drainage may be the main factors at the local scale.

Cause-and-effect relationships cross scales from the local to the global and from the global to the local. For example, local events can have global outcomes, such as the effects of local vegetation removal on global climate.

Spaces are perceived, structured, organised and managed by people, and can be designed and redesigned, to achieve particular purposes.

Environment - The concept of environment is about the significance of the environment in human life, and the important interrelationships between humans and the environment. In the Australian Curriculum: Geography, an understanding of the concept of environment is developed in the following ways:

The environment is the product of geological, atmospheric, hydrological, geomorphic, edaphic (soil), biotic and human processes.

The environment supports and enriches human and other life by providing raw materials and food, absorbing and recycling wastes, maintaining a safe habitat and being a source of enjoyment and inspiration. It presents both opportunities for, and constraints on, human settlement and economic development. The constraints can be reduced but not eliminated by technology and human organisation.

Culture, population density, type of economy, level of technology, values and environmental worldviews influence the different ways in which people perceive, adapt to and use similar environments.

Management of human-induced environmental change requires an understanding of the causes and consequences of change, and involves the application of geographical concepts and techniques to identify appropriate strategies.

Each type of environment has its specific hazards. The impact of these hazards on people is determined by both natural and human factors, and can be reduced but not eliminated by prevention, mitigation and preparedness.

Interconnection - The concept of interconnection emphasises that no object of geographical study can be viewed in isolation. In the Australian Curriculum: Geography, an understanding of the concept of interconnection is developed in the following ways:

Places and the people and organisations in them are interconnected with other places in a variety of ways. These interconnections have significant influences on the characteristics of places and on changes in these characteristics.

Environmental and human processes, for example, the water cycle, urbanisation or human-induced environmental change, are sets of cause-and-effect interconnections that can operate between and within places. They can sometimes be organised as systems involving networks of interconnections through flows of matter, energy, information and actions.

Holistic thinking is about seeing the interconnections between phenomena and processes within and between places.

Sustainability - The concept of sustainability is about the capacity of the environment to continue to support our lives and the lives of other living creatures into the future. In the Australian Curriculum: Geography, an understanding of the concept of sustainability is developed in the following ways:

Sustainability is both a goal and a way of thinking about how to progress towards that goal.

Progress towards environmental sustainability depends on the maintenance or restoration of the environmental functions that sustain all life and human wellbeing (economic and social).

An understanding of the causes of unsustainability requires a study of the environmental processes producing the degradation of an environmental function; the human actions that have initiated these processes; and the attitudinal, demographic, social, economic and political causes of these human actions. These can be analysed through the framework of human–environment systems.

There are a variety of contested views on how progress towards sustainability should be achieved and these are often informed by worldviews such as stewardship.

Scale - The concept of scale is about the way that geographical phenomena and problems can be examined at different spatial levels. In the Australian Curriculum: Geography, an understanding of the concept of scale is developed in the following ways:

Generalisations made and relationships found at one level of scale may be different at a higher or lower level. For example, in studies of vegetation, climate is the main factor at the global scale but soil and drainage may be the main factors at the local scale.

Cause-and-effect relationships cross scales from the local to the global and from the global to the local. For example, local events can have global outcomes, such as the effects of local vegetation removal on global climate.

Change - The concept of change is about explaining geographical phenomena by investigating how they have developed over time. In the Australian Curriculum: Geography, an understanding of the concept of change is developed in the following ways:

Environmental change can occur over both short and long time frames, and both time scales have interrelationships with human activities.

Environmental, economic, social and technological change is spatially uneven, and affects places differently.

An understanding of the current processes of change can be used to predict change in the future and to identify what would be needed to achieve preferred and more sustainable futures.

Key Inquiry Questions

Foundation / Reception Year 1 Year 2 Year 3

What are places like?

What makes a place special?

How can we look after the places we live in?

What are the different features of places?

How can we care for places?

How can spaces within a place be rearranged to suit different purposes?

What is a place?

How are people connected to their place and other places?

What factors affect my connections to places?

How and why are places similar and different?

What would it be like to live in a neighbouring country?

How do people’s feelings about places influence their views about the protection of places?