All of my children really love pouring over atlases and a couple of them are absolutely enthralled by anything called an Atlas. We always have an Atlas lying on our lounge table so that the resident dreamers and pirates have a map close at hand. They tend to dip into it, glean some facts and then leave it, until they are passing by again and repeat the whole process. You can meet the author, Sean Fraser who also wrote The Children’s Madiba, in our interview here.
We were sent this atlas, My First South African Atlas to review and GiveAway by Mapstudio. First thing, do not be misled by “my first” there is nothing “beginner book” about this… this is a book absolutely packed with fascinating facts for every age and stage. It is very visual, so even non-readers will get a lot from it and it has circles filled with amazing “Did you know?” facts scattered on every page for early readers and then boxes of facts about the area and special features and landmarks for older readers to enjoy. Each spread has a detailed map on it, each page has blocks of information and each page had plenty of photographs to illustrate the points of interest.
The book begins with an overview of South Africa and her national symbols, followed by a look at the whole of Africa. And then there each province gets a handful of double page spreads packed with information on: significant buildings, places of interest, natural landmarks, parks and wildlife, geological features, science and technology, arts, culture and leisure and vegetation. Each spread also has interesting lists answering questions about longest rivers, highest mountains and such like. And along the bottom of each page is a relevant timeline. Important dates and snippets of historical interest for that region too. There is also a section on National Parks and Heritage sites.
This book is a fantastic resource, packed with South African facts and would be a great for folk that need to find facts fast. It would especially be useful for school kids to dip into and have at hand for projects… I intend to read our way through it for school next year. It is a great way to traverse all the provinces of South Africa without having to leave home and without having the feeling that you are even remotely reading a text book. It is fun, your children will want to dip into and many adult visitors have said in our lounge, happily saying, “Gosh, did you know?”…
The GiveAway
If my kids were in school I would enter this GiveAway, they need this book. And I know my homeschool kids need this book it will be a great way to give them an overview of all that is south African. If I lived on the far side of the world and wanted to do a country study on South Africa or I wanted to reminisce about home… then this would be the book of choice… easy reading, very visual and packed with amazing facts. All you have to do is leave a comment telling us where in South Africa you would like to visit.
This GiveAway works in the usual way, leave a comment before the end of play on the 30 November 2016. We will draw and publish the winners on the 1st of December. I won’t respond to your comments as we do on our other posts because we don’t want to be included in our own giveaway. Our GiveAways are open to everyone: If you have already won a GiveAway before never fear – enter away. If you live on the far side of the world – enter away.
We would like to thank MapStudio who supplied us with “My First South Africa Atlas”, one to review and one to GiveAway. We were not paid for the review and the opinions expressed in it are as usual, entirely our own.
That atlas looks amazing! We would love to win it.
Ooh we would love this one in our home library
The boys love atlases but we just get them from the library– would be awesome to have one.
I’d love to take my family to the Drakensburg one day– we grew up going there every year but I have never visited with my family!
I think we would like to visit the Cape Town area, to be honest! (You are such a great ambassador!) It seems to have everything: beaches, museums, hikes, wildlife (including penguins!), and amazing plant life. My kids would love it there!
I enjoy maps and atlases, currently helping my homeschooling grandkids in Michigan, recently in world geography. Next time I’m home in Cape Town, I must remember to get some copies of My First South Africa Atlas for those in Michigan as well as those homeschooling in the Eastern Cape. I love visiting Hole-in-the- Wall on the Wild Coast! Thanks.
Well, I would love to visit a lot of places in SA. One place in particular is Namaqua National Park when the flowers are in bloom. We would love to win this!
Would love to visit the Drakensberg region!
We would love to see South Africa – particularly the coastal areas with penguins, and other wildlife reserves. Your animals are so different from what we have in Canada!
This is cool, we are currently studying Africa!
I would visit right where you are or around your area. I like seeing animals (whales, zebras, ostriches, etc.) in the wild.
I want us to take K to Durban – well more like I want to Midlands Meander again, and a Durban visit covers that 😉
I have never been to Kruger National park so this would be one of my definites! Close on that would be St. Lucia.
We would love to visit the Kruger National Park !
Kruger is top of our bucket list with the Kgalagadi a close second!
We would love to visit Kleinmond Coastal Nature and Mountain Reserve to see the rare micro frog.
You had me at Map Studio!
What a fantastic giveaway! We would love to visit the Addo Elephant Park,my kids love elephants!
Oh, we love to dream about far, far places!
For my map-loving son, this would be the perfect end of year gift! Thank You for the great giveaway.
So many give aways – I love it !
What a lovely looking book. I’d love to go to Kruger.
We didn’t know much about South Africa until I found your blog. Would love to visit Cape Town and some of its parks. You have lovely animals and birds that are new to us. (We are in Tennessee, USA.)
What a great looking book! Since we’ve visited most of coastal South Africa with the kids, we would love to go inland and see the Drakensberg one day.
I would like to visit the Natal Midlands and take my family to Mpumalanga.
This looks fabulous! We’d love to visit the wild coast!
Would love to take the family to the Drakensburg and Kruger!
My daughter wants to go to the Cape. She says your blog makes it look so beautiful!
We would love to win this Atlas.
We want to visit all the parks and reserves in our beautiful country
looks like a great atlas! I would love to visit the Drakensberg!
this looks lovely! i would love to win. I would love to take my kids to anywhere in South Africa, they have never been.
Would love to visit the Drakenberg. Looks so awesome