The Pathfinder's Handbook: How to Find Your Way Anywhere!

Joan Buchanan is a children’s storyteller and author of Taking Care of
My Cold and What If I Were in Charge?

Intended for readers 8 and up, The Pathfinder’s Handbook comes in the
Pathfinder’s Adventure Kit along with a working compass with wrist
strap, a game map, pathfinding markers, and a plastic, weatherproof map
case. The handbook discusses maps and compasses, and explains how to use
them. The layout of the text and illustrations flows well, building
interest and complementing the clear, practical language. Informative
sidebars and boxes provide tips and skill exercises that children and
adults will find fun and educational. For example, one way to find
east-west without a compass is to mark a stick’s shadow every 20
minutes, drawing a line through three successive moves. Another tip on
the same page shows how to find the North Star from the end of the
Little Dipper’s handle.

The handbook itself is sturdy, well bound and stitched, but the plastic
map case started to tear at the top corners after minimal handling. The
handbook is a useful, across-the-curriculum tool by itself, but the
accompanying map and compass are well integrated into the text and
everyone will get much more out of the kit if they have access to all
the components.

I highly recommend this well conceived, charmingly illustrated
pathfinder’s package.