Title: Marvellous Maps: The World as you have never seen it before

Written by: Simon Kuestenmacher

Illustrated by: Margarida Esteves

Published by: Welbeck Publishing

Marvellous Maps: The World as you have never seen it before brings together a selection of Simon Kuestenmacher’s extraordinary maps, inspired by the incredible collection he posts regular to his Twitter account for his 257.2K followers: @simongerman600

These 40 extraordinary maps will encourage young curious and imaginative minds to explore the world in a unique and visually powerful way. There are wide variety of simple yet stimulating maps to delve into and analyse from The World is a Cat Playing with Australia to an impression of a NASA representation stitched from night satellite images to show a digital view of the world as The Black Marble.

A few of my favourites include The Epic Journey of Odysseus, the king of Ithaca, which depicts the twelve years of fighting mythical beings outlined by the Greek poet Homer in his famous Odyssey poem; Where You Can See The Northern Lights, A World Designed By Dolphins and The Longest Straight Line You Can Walk, which is actually from Liberia to Eastern China.

Margarida Esteves digitally produced maps present often complex concepts in an uncomplicated, easy to understand way that would be ideal for encouraging reluctant readers to enjoy books.

This is a clever book that makes you think. Simon Kuestenmacher has packed it full of interesting facts such as, Australia is bigger than the dwarf planet Pluto, all the countries of the world fit into the Pacific Ocean, and in 1972, astronauts took a famous photo of earth called The Blue Marble.

At the back of the book is a bibliography containing more information about the inspiration and original maps which is an asset top the book and demonstrates the dedication and research that went into each map.

I would recommend this book for all inquisitive minds – children’s and adult’s.

You can buy copies of Marvellous Maps by Simon Kuestenmacher and Margarida Esteves from your local bookshop, or online at uk.bookshop.org, an organisation with a mission to financially support local, independent bookshops.