RUBY MAPS HER WORLD

After a girl receives a journal for her birthday, she uses it to map her neighborhood and her day.

Ruby, an East Asian–presenting youngster, is excited to take a walk outside for her first “solo mapping day.” Her mother is a cartographer, but today it’s Ruby’s turn; Mama will be following behind at a safe distance, in case of emergencies. As she walks, Ruby draws what she sees: her own home with its gray garage and red mailbox. She writes, too (after all, a map must be a “good show-and-tell”): “three steps down, past the mailbox.” Phumiruk’s clean illustrations in soft colors are a sedate foil to Ruby’s hand-drawn icons representing each thing she sees on her walk, with dotted lines charting her path and written notes labeling her pictures. Each image of a real-life scene is juxtaposed with Ruby’s interpretation, giving readers the feeling of peeking into her notebook. Ruby draws landmarks, animals, people, and even her own imaginings. As her walk comes to a conclusion, Daddy is waiting, ready to take her to his house for a birthday celebration, where she can map the “other half of her crowded and always interesting world”—a subtle acknowledgment that Ruby is the child of amicably divorced parents. The backmatter, aimed at educators, includes further reading and several activities.

Will most certainly inspire young cartographers to chart their own worlds.