No Ending

A good book has no ending.

Robert Dalziel Cumming. "Through the Microscope," in Skookum Chuck Fables Bits of History, Through the Microscope. Qontro Classic Books, 2010, p. 81.

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This is an update to my July 27, 2016 post on geography books for children.

For everybody who hasn't read the previous post (which would be everybody, probably), the results of my initial search were ... disappointing. Amazon produced a mountain of results, many (most?) of very dubious relevance. Goodreads was surprisingly unhelpful, too.

But I did find an interesting site that does have some reasonable recommendations. It's called Booknixie. The interesting thing about Booknixie is that it only lists award-winning books. It actually sorts books by the number of awards they've received. This is from the "About" page:

I'm Meg Solley, a software developer living in Seattle with my husband and two young kids.

We all love books and reading. My older daughter is really into chapter books and just starting along the path towards reading to herself; my son is crazy for anything with detailed, beautiful pictures. And, all right, I myself am not above a little Young Adult Fiction in my spare time. So I created BookNixie for us, so we can all find the best of what we like.

I launched the site in December of 2012 and I'm working to make it better all the time. Check back often for new books, new authors, new awards, and all kinds of exciting new features.

Also, please send lots of comments/suggestions/corrections to meg@booknixie.com!

The Booknixie search function seems broken, but by using Google I was able to find a very nice collection of geography books for children.

Award-winning Children's Fiction Books about Geography

FICTION

• Hattie Big Sky by Kirby Larson
• The Fire-Eaters by David Almond
• Tibet: Through the Red Box by Peter Sis [This is misclassified -- it's nonfiction]
• The Boy of the Three-Year Nap by Dianne Snyder
• War Boy: a Country Childhood by Michael Foreman
• The Tree of Life: Charles Darwin by Peter Sis [This is misclassified -- it's nonfiction]
• Heart of a Samurai by Margi Preus
• The Long Road to Gettysburg by Jim Murphy
• Shadow by Marcia Brown
• An Indian Winter by Russell Freedman
• Show Way by Jacqueline Woodson
• Sea of the Dead by Julia Durango
• Dona Flor by Pat Mora
• The Shoe Tree of Chagrin by J. Patrick Lewis and Chris Sheban
• The Top of the World: Climbing Mount Everest by Steve Jenkins [This is misclassified -- it's nonfiction]
• Scooter by Vera B. Williams
• Appalachia: The Voices of Sleeping Birds by Cynthia Rylant
• Miracles on Maple Hill by Virginia Sorensen
• The Little Ships : The Heroic Rescue at Dunkirk in World War II by Louise Lewin Borden [This is misclassified -- it's nonfiction]
• The Pirate's Son (Point Signature) by Geraldine McCaughrean
• Shipwrecked! by Rhoda Blumberg
• Fame and Glory In Freedom, Georgia by Barbara O'Connor
• City Walks: Paris by Christina Henry de Tessan [This is misclassified -- it's nonfiction]
• Kamishibai Man by Allen Say
• Sally Jean, the Bicycle Queen by Cari Best
• How I Learned Geography by Uri Shulevitz
• The Way to Start a Day by Byrd Baylor
• Umbrella by Taro Yashima
• Paddle-To-The-Sea by Holling C. Holling
• Sugaring Time by Kathryn Lasky
• The King's Fifth by Scott O'Dell
• Adele & Simon by Barbara McClintock
• The Old Country by Mordicai Gerstein
• Ties That Bind, Ties That Break by Lensey Namioka
• Listening For Lions by Gloria Whelan

NON-FICTION

• The Race to Save the Lord God Bird by Phillip Hoose
• Tibet: Through the Red Box by Peter Sis
• The Tree of Life: Charles Darwin by Peter Sis
• 14 Cows for America by Carmen Agra Deedy
• Into the Unknown: How Great Explorers Found Their Way by Land, Sea, and Air by Stewart Ross
• The Desert Is Theirs by Byrd Baylor
• Wangari's Trees of Peace: A True Story from Africa by Jeanette Winter
• Bad Boy: A Memoir by Walter Dean Myers
• Children of the Great Depression by Russell Freedman
• The Long Road to Gettysburg by Jim Murphy [This is misclassified -- it's fiction]
• An Indian Winter by Russell Freedman
• Children of the Wild West by Russell Freedman
• Dust to Eat: Drought and Depression in the 1930s by Michael L. Cooper
• The Longitude Prize by Joan Dash
• The Top of the World: Climbing Mount Everest by Steve Jenkins
• You Asked? Over 300 Great Questions and Astounding Answers by Katherine Farris [Questionable -- only somewhat related to geography]
• Children Just Like Me: A Unique Celebration of Children Around the World by Anabel Kindersley and Barnabas Kindersley
• Red Scarf Girl: A Memoir of the Cultural Revolution by Ji-Li Jiang
• National Geographic World Atlas for Young Explorers by National Geographic Society
• The Amazing Pop-Up Geography Book by Jennie Maizels and Kate Petty
• Shipwrecked! by Rhoda Blumberg [May be misclassified -- it's on both the fiction and non-fiction lists]
• The Train of States by Peter Sis
• 10,000 Days of Thunder: A History of the Vietnam War by Philip Caputo
• The Forbidden Schoolhouse: The True and Dramatic Story of Prudence Crandall and her Students by Suzanne Jurmain
• The Power of One: Daisy Bates and the Little Rock Nine by Dennis Fradin and Judith Bloom Fradin
• Hachiko: The True Story of a Loyal Dog by Pamela S. Turner
• The Mount Rushmore Story by Judith St. George
• Uncommon Traveler: Mary Kingsley in Africa by Don Brown
• How I Learned Geography by Uri Shulevitz [This is misclassified -- it's fiction]
• Paddle-To-The-Sea by Holling C. Holling [This is misclassified -- it's fiction]
• Sugaring Time by Kathryn Lasky
• Minn of the Mississippi by Holling C. Holling

I find it interesting that a website created and operated by a single person does such a much better job than behemoths like Amazon -- but I think it may be another indication that a skilled pilot is sometimes better at flying than an autopilot.