State-by-State Atlas

Rating:
Summary: Point me...in the direction of Albuquerque....
Review: I suppose most of the young readers who pick up the DK "State-by-State Atlas" will not remember the old song "Point Me in the Direction of Albuquerque" by the Partridge Family, but is certainly is relevant to this book. The first thing I did when I initially flipped through this atlas was to check out the state where I know live (Minnesota) and the state where I went to high school and my first couple of colleges (New Mexico). The map of the Land of 10,000 Lakes lists only four cities: Minneapolis, St. Paul, Duluth, and Austin, so I thought there was some sort of limitation on cities that could be listed, although I was pretty sure that Mankato, Bemidji, and several other places were bigger than Austin. That particular southern Minnesota city is best known for being the intersection of two major interstates, but highway are not shown on these state maps, only geographical features. Then I turn to the two-page spread on New Mexico and despite having one-quarter the population of Minnesota there are three times as many cities listed. They even list Rio Rancho, the suburb to which my family moved when my father retired and which is now a city in its own rights. The only problem is that while Rio Rancho is off to the northwest of Albuquerque, the state's largest city is not even listed.

Now you understand why the title for this review is a quote from an old Partridge Family song.

DK's "State-by-State Atlas" is organized by region (e.g., the Midwest States, the Southwest States), so that young readers can appreciate which Americans might identify themselves as Midwesterners or Southerners. This also makes sense from a geographical perspective as the regional approach helps to explain how a river system or mountain range can affect the weather of a region, its ecology, and what the inhabitants of an area do for recreation (e.g., why Texans do not ski at home). At introductory section to each region shows a map of the states being covered, a time line of key dates, and brief sections describing the climate, landscape, lifestyle and economy. For each state there is a map, a list of State Facts (bird, flower, tree, capital, population, statehood, largest cities and land area), pictures of key sites, and a short biography of a famous person associated with that state (e.g., Garrison Keillor and Georgia O'Keefe for MN and NM).

The result is a nice little introduction to each state that would prove of more benefit to students looking at a particular region than an individual state. Young readers will get a sense of the flavor of each state and certainly some ideas as to what areas they can research further on line or in other books, such as, for example, what happened to the 448,607 people who lived in Albuquerque when it disappeared from the face of the earth...

Rating:
Summary: Misleading or incorrect information in reference book
Review: It's disturbing to see how many mistakes I found just browsing through this colorful, attractive book. Though the state bird of Alabama is known locally as "yellowhammer," you will not find that name in any field guide! The accompanying picture was no help either in identifying what turned out to be the Common Flicker. Other state birds were listed by uncommon, incorrect, misleading names too.
The 1995 bombing in Oklahoma City is represented by a nice picture and writeup, but with a glaring misspelling in its headline--"In Memorium" should be "In Memoriam."
Claremore, OK is misspelled as "Clarmore" on the map.
These errors leaped out at me just flipping through the pages. This is very disappointing and makes me wonder what other misinformation this book contains. Adults have some knowledge and experience against which to measure what they read; schoolchildren who may be learning facts for the first time need the facts to be correct!

Rating:
Summary: Makes for an attractive, appealing presentation
Review: The State-By-State Atlas is organized by region and features information about each state's landscape, industry, agriculture, population and history, using digital color maps and photos to help emphasize geographic facts. The emphasis on color embellishments makes for an attractive, appealing presentation.

Rating:
Summary: Neat book!
Review: This is a great book, very informative and well organized...I just have one gripe...Pennsylvania is listed as the 32nd state, when actually it was the 2nd...Minnesota was also listed as the 32nd state, which was correct...call me anal but I'm teaching a class on the 50 states so I have to be accurate, and depend on my references to be accurate as well!