Martha Maps It Out
Leigh Hodgkinson
Oxford Children’s Books

Young Martha might be small but her thoughts are anything but: her mind full of BIG things.
She absolutely loves drawing maps, creating them out of almost everything from the universe to her bedroom in the top floor flat in which she and her family live; she even makes maps of her thoughts, her questions and her dreams.

Through Martha’s cartographic creations readers share with the girl her entire world as she guides us through the pages and beginning in deepest space, we zoom inwards page by page to planet Earth with its awesome flora and fauna, her city, her street and community, her block of flats, her own home and her room.

From there we travel outwards once more through the thoughts, questions and those BIG dreams of a future where absolutely anything is possible: a life of discoveries … excitement,

adventure, wonder, not forgetting of course, love.

Leigh Hodgkinson is brilliant at presenting quirky details in her visuals and this book of Martha’s maps is absolutely alive with them. To these are added a wealth of labels that children will love to explore as they, one hopes, like Martha will share that sense of optimism and excitement about what the future might hold. Bursting with classroom (and home) potential, this splendidly upbeat, and unusual picture book is one to return to over and over wherever you are.