This Land is Your Land

By: Catherine Morrison
Illustrated by: Cathy Morrison
Publisher: Arbordale Publishing
Publication Date: May 2015
ISBN: 978-1628555660
Reviewed by: Deb Fowler
Review Date: June 2015

A beautiful mountain range loomed in the background of the family campground. A boy and his mother sat on a log, discussing the natural world around them. He held a pair of binoculars, ready and waiting to take a closer look, while his mother pointed at something in the distance. What would they be able to see that would tell them about landforms they found on their map? "Earth has landforms everywhere: / special places people share. / Nature makes an awesome scene ... / up high, down low, and in between."

Their map would tell them all about the jagged seacoast where the land nestled up next to the sea. It's a wonderful place where a little girl and a dog can run in the sand while sandpipers search for food in the incoming waves. They could learn about snowcapped mountains and their snowy peaks. Brrrrrr! If you take a close look at the map you can easily see that hills and plateaus have much different shapes than a mountain. The map inset shows four states in the Colorado Plateau, but just what is a plateau?

"A plateau stretches miles long. / Its rocky structure makes it strong. / The land is raised and flat on top. / Desert plateaus can't grow a top." Around the world they can travel, exploring the different geological features it has to offer. A physical map can tell us all kinds of things about our Earth's landforms and geological features. Do you know what an archipelago is and how one is formed? Perhaps you've seen a depiction of the Hawaiian island chain. You learn all about how this chain was formed and much more in this fascinating book!

This is a great geo adventure that will help young students learn about the Earth's landforms and geological features. This story in rhyme is an animated overview of our world as seen from both the eyes of children and adults enjoying its features. Each two-page spread has an inset that shows some aspect of the area being explored or discussed via the rhyme. For example, when discussing the hill where wilderness are seen sliding, we see a physical map in the inset. In the back matter are activities that include additional landform information, a matching activity, map skills information, and questions. In addition to the four pages of activities, there are free complementary activities on the publisher's website. This is an excellent read and discuss book for students in the homeschool or classroom setting.

Accelerated Reader: 2.7
Flesch-Kincaid: 2.0
Lexile: 580L
Fountas and Pinnell: N

Quill says: This is a great geo adventure that will help young students learn about the Earth's landforms and geological features!