An interactive map of storybook England shows places associated with Alice, Black Beauty, Harry Potter and other famous characters
One of the great pleasures of visiting Britain is that the government hires a lot of people who can help you find your way around instead of doing what we do here in the U.S., which is to tell visitors: “You want information about our country? Pray for a taxi driver who speaks English.” Pause. “If that fails, you could always ask the person who mugs you.”
Many of the helpful Brits work for the tourist boards Visit Britain www.visitbritain.com, Visit Scotland www.visitscotland.com and Visit Wales www.visitwales.com. And some of them came up with a great interactive online map of England that lets children learn about places linked to characters in books like Black Beauty, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and the Harry Potter series.
I learned about this delightful storybook map from Ceri Radford, who wrote in her blog about books in the Telegraph: “You can browse by book title, then click to find out more about the work and its location. Kudos to Enjoy England, the marketing arm of Visit Britain, for coming up with the idea.” You can read more about it here blogs.telegraph.co.uk/arts/ceriradford/dec07/.
(c) 2008 Janice Harayda. All rights reserved.
One-Minute Book Reviews 
Could NOT resist checking out the Storybook Map. Enchanting. Love it. Saved it as a favorite. (I’ll stop gushing about it now.)
Did not find the Glimmer Glass book at B&N but DID find a little something by Joyce Carol Oates (The Faith of a Writer…and it’s not all about spirtuality/religion…it is, as its subtitle says about Life, Craft , Art.) Just what I needed yesterday at lunchtime in the midst of the corporate bs in which I play a Manager. And it’s lovely reading today. Hope it wasn’t on any of your previous Delete Key lists but even so, it’s jumpstarting my thinking a bit on several pieces in progress.
Comment by oh — March 8, 2008 @ 10:10 pm |
Isn’t the map great? It’s so well-designed that children can enjoy it whether or not they’ve read the books or visited England.
Thanks so much for your comment. I hope it will encourage others to visit the site.
Jan
Comment by 1minutebookreviewswordpresscom — March 9, 2008 @ 10:45 am |
Dear Jan,
Do you know what book Oh was talking about when they said “the Glimmer Glass” book?
Thanks,
Mirdreams
Comment by mirdreams — November 3, 2008 @ 6:12 pm |
Actually, it should have been “Glimmer Train.” When this post appeared, I had just mentioned a guide for writers based on interviews with authors in Glimmer Train magazine http://www.oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/2007/12/27/. Glimmer Train has published more than one book of advice for writers.
Thanks so much for bringing this up, so I could clarify it for anyone who didn’t get it …
Jan
Comment by 1minutebookreviewswordpresscom — November 3, 2008 @ 8:34 pm |