How I Learned Geography

Shulevitz, U.  (2008).  How I Learned Geography.  New York: Farrar Straus Giroux.

This book was a Caldecott Honor Book in 2008.

Explication:  The story is about a young boy and his parents as they flee Poland taking up residence in Kazakhstan during World War II. 

Conflict:  The boy doesn't understand why they had to leave their home and why the family is so hungry.  They live in a house with another couple.

Rising Action:  One day the father went to the bazaar to buy some bread but didn't come home until after dark and only had a  map.  He hung up the map the next day and the boy became fascinated by it.  

Climax:  The map took him to far away places and he forgot about his hunger.  He studied the map all day until it was too dark to see. 

Falling Action:  He traveled every day to a different place without leaving his room and learned the names on the map in rhyme.  He spent many enchanted hours far away from his hunger.  

Resolution:  He forgave his father because the map was what he needed to forget.

The watercolor pictures are great and enhance the text perfectly.  The text is written in first person, the words of the young boy.  It is a true story of Polish refugees that fled their home in the Warsaw Blitz in 1939.