3-D WORLD ATLAS & TOUR

Well stocked with frequent exclamations (“No one knows what happened to the Sphinx’s nose. It’s been missing for hundreds of years!”) and maps that spring into low relief for viewers who don one of the two pairs of cardboard-framed glasses provided, this quick spin around the world will give armchair tourists both basic map skills and inviting glimpses of distant places and people. Javins skips from continent to continent, providing for each a 3-D physical map, one or more simplified (2-D) political maps and a handful of postcard photos of natural or manufactured wonders that are also, often, enhanced by a peek through the special glasses. Though aside from the gimmick there isn’t much to distinguish this from the plethora of other beginner atlases, the commentary’s breezy tone lightens the informational load, and the maps are particularly clean and legible. (Nonfiction. 7-9)