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<p>This article examines how children engage with maps embedded in picturebooks, highlighting how cartographic elements enrich narrative structure and support educational development. Drawing on interdisciplinary frameworks, including cartography, developmental psychology, and communication theory, it examines how maps engage young readers with concepts of space and place, symbolic interpretation, and narrative comprehension. Grounded in the classification framework developed by Bettina Kümmerling-Meibauer and Jörg Meibauer (<CitationRef CitationID="CR18">2015</CitationRef>) this analysis focuses on two key categories of maps, as examined through case studies: those that depict character journeys and those that convey personal or emotional geographies. The case studies of <i>The Map That Came to Life</i> (1948) and <i>My Place</i> (2008) demonstrate the varying degrees of symbolic abstraction, narrative function, and geographic reference in children’s engagement with maps, ranging from realistic renderings to imaginative constructs. These examples highlight the communicative interplay between text, illustration, and map while emphasising the importance of cognitive accessibility in cartographic design for young readers. Ultimately, the study highlights the narrative and educational significance of child-friendly maps and calls for further research into how children interpret visual-spatial information in literary contexts.</p>

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How Maps Shape Narrative and Spatial Understanding in Picturebooks: An Analysis of The Map that Came to Life and My Place

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2026年1月13日

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  • Esra Bulut Peynirci

摘要

This article examines how children engage with maps embedded in picturebooks, highlighting how cartographic elements enrich narrative structure and support educational development. Drawing on interdisciplinary frameworks, including cartography, developmental psychology, and communication theory, it examines how maps engage young readers with concepts of space and place, symbolic interpretation, and narrative comprehension. Grounded in the classification framework developed by Bettina Kümmerling-Meibauer and Jörg Meibauer (2015) this analysis focuses on two key categories of maps, as examined through case studies: those that depict character journeys and those that convey personal or emotional geographies. The case studies of The Map That Came to Life (1948) and My Place (2008) demonstrate the varying degrees of symbolic abstraction, narrative function, and geographic reference in children’s engagement with maps, ranging from realistic renderings to imaginative constructs. These examples highlight the communicative interplay between text, illustration, and map while emphasising the importance of cognitive accessibility in cartographic design for young readers. Ultimately, the study highlights the narrative and educational significance of child-friendly maps and calls for further research into how children interpret visual-spatial information in literary contexts.