Times Atlas of the World - Inspire a Child

I can still remember when I was very young receiving my very first Atlas. It was children's atlas of sorts but it was fairly detailed - when I opened it on Christmas morning - I can still remember that little tinge of disappointment - which was reserved for all 'book/educational' presents - unless it was the latest 2000AD annual.I guess it was a day or two later when I finally looked at it properly and it made something click inside me that is still with me now into my forties. Of course it was a different world then - we didn't have satellite TV and countries being beamed in to our living rooms every day. For a little boy in the early seventies it opened the door to the real world - even flicking through the index of a children's atlas can bring a realisation of just how big the world really is.Michael Palin mentioned at the beginning of his wonderful series about the Himalayas how it's fun to flick through an Atlas just to read the names and the bizarre way complete differe
nt places lie next to each other in the listings. For even a seasoned traveller let alone a young boy the exotic names spell out a world of adventure that lies somewhere out there in the big bad world!Most atlases nowadays will tell you lots of information on geography, demographics, religion - more information than you can dream of. I used to flick through my atlas and plan all the places I would visit - alas my list seems longer than my opportunities. I fear that there may be some casualties on my checklist - my intended visit to the Republic of Djibouti is looking unlikely at the moment. I'm not sure why I wanted to visit there but Times Atlas of the World mentioned Muslims, Catholics and Coptic Greeks - I imagined them all chatting in French and Arabic watching the sun go down in a red desert sky. But then you read more and notice that only 20% of the population are literate - the life expectancy is something like 45 years old. Djibouti might not be that far away from me
when we have easy air travel but it's much, much more than a world away from the life I lead.A single page in a great Atlas can spark a hobby, an interest even a driving lifetime ambition in a child. At the very least it will spark an interest in the rest of the world and fire their imaginations. My eldest child now has a list of his own - much of it mirroring mine through our discussions but he also has some strange places I've never heard of.My Times Atlas of the World was probably the most expensive single volume I have ever bought but it sits there waiting for a moment to inspire, or to help my children understand about a place in their homework. I guess if I was religious a bible or the Quoran might takes it's place but for me a great atlas has the power to inspire, to educate and to dream.Next time you're thinking of a present for a child and are looking at the shelves of plastic, battery driven rubbish that might last a few days - consider an atlas - they come in all
different prices and ranges and just maybe you might inspire a young mind in ways we can't even begin to guess.

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