8 books with maps to help children understand borders and countries

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8 books with maps to help children understand borders and countries

One of our favourite family pastimes is planning trips. (We plan many more trips than we actually take!) Ivy gets into it too, she has plans to see sharks in the Great Australian Bite, visit the Eiffel Tower and go to Japan—no prizes for guessing where we’ve been talking about going lately.JAs well as trip planning, books with maps are great for learning about borders and sovereignty. Those are tricky concepts, but

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a poignant look at the precariousness of refugee life

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a poignant look at the precariousness of refugee life

ages 8 years and up
The reality of life in a refugee camp is no longer hidden—it permeates news cycles and images— and writings are readily available and plentiful. It's generally understood that a refugee's life is one of fear, heightened emotions, constant change. Still, the individual humanity of the refugees themselves remains hidden....

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6 reasons kids need the empathy-building power of books about refugees

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6 reasons kids need the empathy-building power of books about refugees

According to the UN Refugee Agency there were about 21.3 million refugees worldwide in 2015. Now consider that there are round about 7.5 billion people in the world. That means refugees represent somewhere in the vicinity of 0.3% of the world’s population.

Taking into account all displaced persons ..... that percentage rises to ..... represent 1 in 113 people!

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a tote, a thought about reality and some mind-blowing books

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a tote, a thought about reality and some mind-blowing books

the mind-blowing books in this post are great for ages 6 years and all the way up!
All the girls in the family are currently ‘toting’ these totes—the slogan spoke to us so we ordered four at once to save on postage. (We have to co-ordinate when we go out or risk looking like a gang.) Our group-buy was completely about the slogan; we didn't even look at size or shape....

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one book each—about inspiring women and fascinating science

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one book each—about inspiring women and fascinating science

The movie Hidden Figures is just wonderful—funny, frustrating, uplifting, beautiful—the full cinematic experience!  But the book covers so much more (naturally). Here’s a clip of author Margot Lee Shetterly talking to one of Dorothy Vaughn’s* grandchildren. She talks about the movie and the other parts of the book.Hidden Figures Young Readers' Edition is wonderful too—

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a lovely book for kids going through 'hard to find friends' times

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a lovely book for kids going through 'hard to find friends' times

ages 2 to 8 years
Do your little ones have imaginary friends? Some of mine did. It was cute to hear them chatting away to someone invisible—less cute when I once had to wait in the rain because an imaginary friend called Minga had to get in the car first and then took her own sweet time about buckling up her seatbelt! There are lots of good reasons to enjoy the imaginary friend stage, one being...

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a bit of brain gym tied up in provocative story-based art

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a bit of brain gym tied up in provocative story-based art

ages 6 years to adult
Is there a more universal and constant battle for western parents than the fight to limit technology? We so want all the benefits of technological immersion but also feel instinctively that lives need a bit of analogue in them too. Labyrinth is like a book bridge—it crosses the chasm between story and interactive play...

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