Ready for the rest of the world? Explorers will love searching for the world's largest flower, a mouse that sings, or a tomb guarded by 6,000 warriors in The Reader's Digest Children's Atlas of the World. Created to captivate today's multimedia-cultured kids, this atlas is a hands-on, brains-in-gear experience, electric with vivid colors and information. Before traversing the exquisite maps in this atlas, kids can see how a map is made, how it is read, and how to complete one of their own. Then they blast off into space to consider the planet and all that affects it: climate, natural resources, world population, and environmental perils. Or they can zoom in closer and find maps illustrated with thresher sharks and Matreshka dolls, Aztec snake carvings and Giza pyramids. They'll want to stop and tour the boxes labeled "Amazing Facts" and "Look Again." Special project sections invite the traveler further into the world beyond the page. When the young and tireless explorers reach home again, they will have plenty of evidence of their worldly travels: boomerangs to remind them of Australia, Sami tents from their stay in Northern Europe, Taj Mahal tiles from tours of India, and many other souvenirs. Word is out that geography is cool, summer is hot, and that the two go together like ice cream and cake. Bon Voyage! Tanoshinde itte irasshai!Reviewed by Anna Claire Straughan.