The Canadian Oxford Junior Atlas

Brenda Reed is a public services librarian in the Education Library at
Queen’s University.

This beautifully designed atlas is a splendid resource for Canadian
social studies classrooms and an essential school library resource for
junior and senior high schools. Care has been taken with the layout of
the pages so that charts, photographs, map keys, and fact inserts are
successfully integrated with the maps. The atlas features an attractive
cover image of the earth from space. The inside covers present the world
time zones (inside front) and an alphabetical list of countries and
regions of the world with their area, population, and capital cities
(inside back). A detailed table of contents is followed by map
interpretation information on such topics as land height and rivers. The
pages on land height and rivers offer parallel maps and drawings to
illustrate the relationship between a color-coded map and the land and
water surfaces of the earth. In the index, names of countries and page
numbers are highlighted for quick reference.

A political map of Canada precedes maps of each province or region of
Canada. The Confederation Bridge appears here as a continuation of the
Trans-Canada Highway, indicating the up-to-date nature of the atlas.
Each page features a map key, provincial flag, fact boxes that indicate
the province’s capital city and population, and other interesting
snippets of information in box inserts. Maps of Canada show
“Landforms, elevation, and rivers,” “Natural vegetation,”
“Climate,” “Farming, forestry, and fishing,” “Minerals and
energy,” “Manufacturing and transportation,” “Pollution and
conservation,” “Population,” “Aboriginal peoples,”
“Language, ethnic origin, and migration,” and “Explorers.” The
mapmakers have done a brilliant job of organizing photographs, pie
charts, graphs, distance charts, multiple map keys, and diagrams so that
information is displayed clearly. On the “World explorers,” page
small but clear photos of the Canadarm robot and the replica of the
Matthew (John Cabot’s ship) show how the evolution of the methods and
direction of world exploration have evolved over 500 years. The photos
used to illustrate world climates and environments are also notable for
their quality and their effectiveness as map enhancements. The second
half of the atlas offers maps of the continents and the world that
address many of the topics covered in the Canadian section.

This intelligently designed resource provides a wealth of up-to-date
information about our country and the world. Highly recommended.