How I Learned Geography

Author: Uri Shulevitz

Title: How I Leaned Geography

Illustrator: Uri Shulevitz

Genre: Picture Book

Subgenre: Refugees, Maps, Geography

Theme:  Using imagination to escape troubles of life. 

Primary and Secondary Characters: Boy and Family

Awards:  American Library Association Notable Children's Books; Caldecott Honor Book; An Indie Next Kids' List Great Read; Bank Street Best Children's Book of the Year; CCBC Choice (Univ. of WI); NYPL Book for Reading and Sharing; Parents' Choice Honor Books; Charlotte Zolotow Award / Honor Book; NCSS-CBC Notable Trade Book in the Field of Social Studies; Booklinks Lasting Connection; Booklist Editors' Choice; Publishers Weekly Best Children's Books of the Year; School Library Journal Best Books of the Year; Capitol Choices Noteworthy Titles for Children and Teens; Georgia Children’s Book Award Master List (University of GA); Michigan Great Lakes Great Books Award Master List

Publishing Company: Farrar Straus Giroux 

Date of Publication: 2008

Brief Summary and How to Use With Students:

                How I Learned Geography is based on the life of author Uri Shulevitz. It tells of his life as a Polish refugee during World War II. Unable to buy food his father instead went to market and returned with a world map. The young boy escapes the misery of refugee life by spending hours looking at this grand and colorful map dreaming of falling into these far off lands.

            Students learn best through lived or shared experiences. This is why this book is such a great pick to read aloud in the classroom. This book is mainly meant to draw the interest of third through fifth grade but can be used at any level for social studies or geography. The closing remarks from the author are great to read to students as an opening to learning about World War II. You can have students find the areas where Uri lived as a child and discuss the geography of those regions. You also can discuss what these areas where like and what people experienced during World War II. You can also compare cultural differences.

This book can also be shared as a closer to a lesson about maps. You can ask students to draw a world map from memory before you begin your geography lesson. Then, have students draw the world again after completing your lesson plans and see how the picture has improved.  Younger grades can draw a map of their school or even a map showing how to get from their home to school. Other things they will learn to do will be: how to draw a map to scale, how to read and draw a map key, and direction such as North, South, East, and West.