For the Love of Books: Atlas of Football

I’m always interested in books that will engage a tough crowd. When we talk about teaching reading, and the groups of children that are a little more challenging to engage in reading, we often look at boys as one of those groups. From my own experience of school, I remember my mum telling me that I just wasn’t interested in books until about Year 3 or 4. I don’t remember not being interested in reading, but what I do remember doing, is attempting to read the hobbit when I was half way through Year 4. I remember it distinctly because my teacher had me read it to them regularly and really pushed me to persevere with it. Firstly, I must have enjoyed it, otherwise I wouldn’t have carried on, but secondly, I must have enjoyed reading by that point too. What I don’t remember is how I got more into it. The Roger Red Hat and Jennifer Yellow Hat characters definitely weren’t an inspiration or a driving force for me, but there must have been something that spurred me on.

If I really try to pin it down, I’d say it was in Year 3 that my teacher, Miss Gardener, really got me – and it was through the ‘topic’ that we were studying. We were learning about Antarctica and the adventures of Roald Amundsen and ‘Scott of the Antarctic’. The first proper book I remember taking an interest in was a book that was bought for me called ‘Life in the Freezer’. I still own it now. And I think that is the approach I have always taken with reading when trying to engage children – using ‘topics’, both history and geography focusses, in order to inspire children to want to find out more. This way, children are instigating their own desire or love of reading independently. I think this is much more likely to stick.

So where am I going with this one you may ask. Well back to today’s book choice – an atlas. But not just any atlas, its an Atlas of Football. I like it for many reasons, but if you have any children who you are struggling to get into reading, it’s a great in for those who love football (both boys and girls). It presents a range of maps of different continents and countries, with amazing facts and figures about football from that country and the places within that country. I love it because it’s engaging. It gives children what they are interested in but also informs them about the geography and history surrounding those places.

Its all about maps!

I’ve recently been working on some slides for some geography training that I have been developing. One of the sessions is all about developing locational knowledge, and I don’t think that this is possible without looking at maps. If you can put maps into a context that children want to explore, such as football, then you are exposing them to locations around the world without them even realising it. This book has facts about football from all around the world and really provides a window into world geography. It shows where famous football players have come from, where some of the largest stadiums in the world can be found and all of this by putting the geography jigsaw of the world together.

One of my favourite features is that when looking at a specific country the page is accompanied by a circular image, placing that country on a world map, showing which continent it is a part of and where it borders. I think developing children’s locational awareness of different countries within the world is so important, and this book or atlas provides lots of little opportunities for this to happen under the banner of football! Furthermore, it provides two straight forward world maps to help children develop knowledge of the continents and their position, and then for each continent it provides another map showing where different countries fit alongside others. Without even realising it, children will be learning about where all of these different countries are from around the world – amazing geography in disguise.

Brilliant visuals

For those of you that have been reading my blogs so far, I’m sure you will have become accustomed to the fact that I’m all about books that present information in an interesting and engaging way, and this book is no different. Across each map, there are lovely visuals which help to bring the facts to life. So even for children who’s fluency is not quite there yet, there are so many images to support understanding of the facts that are being delivered. There are also lots of images that draw away from the maps, showing representations of famous people and events, really bringing the vast geography of football to life.

It really is a fantastic way of encouraging children into the world of maps and supporting them with their locational knowledge. Sometimes, you just need children to work with a normal map, but if you want that learning to be more purposeful and meaningful, engaging them in maps by using different contexts is key. If a child falls in love with the information they find in this book, you know that they will have also learned where in the world that information is referring too. There are so many engaging books about maps and learning geography through different contexts, and this one truly is ace. If you’ve not had a chance to look at it, as always, I’d highly recommend it.

And if you’ve got any other good suggestions for books which present maps in interesting ways, I’d love to hear about them!