The Magic Map is a 1927 children’s fantasy Edutainment Novel written by Mary Graham Bonner and illustrated by Luxor Price. It was the first book in Bonner’s Magic series, and was followed up by Magic Journeys in 1928.
It tells the story of David, a young boy struggling with his geography studies who one day finds himself falling into a map in his geography book. After taking stock of his new surroundings, a passing Compass informs David that he’s fallen into a Living Map, gives him a few handy navigational tips, and tells him he can go explore the Map “if that is his wish”.
And so David’s journey across the Living Map begins, a journey that will take him from Cape Horn to Newfoundland and everywhere in between, a journey where the concepts of geography- everything from Earth’s Axis of Rotation and Equator, to landforms like the Great Salt Lake, to even a few weather concepts like the North Temperate Zone and the Trade Winds- come to life as quirky personalities that introduce David -and the reader- to the wonders of the Earth. (Well, at least the Western Hemisphere. David doesn’t get to the Eastern Hemisphere until the sequel.)
Oh, and they also sing. Yes, in a book.
This work provides examples of:
- Angel Unaware: That slightly-odd pilot who flies David up to Canada turns out to be the wind itself
- Animate Inanimate Object: The personification of America’s Bread Basketnote takes the form of a literal, walking, basket of bread.
- All Just a Dream: David’s adventure in the Living Map ends with the house cook waking him up by calling his name.
- Always Female: City personifications in the Living Map are all girls, for whatever reason.
- Anthropomorphic Personification: The inhabitants of the Living Map all represent various geo- or cartographical concepts, everything from the Trade Winds to a Compass to Equator to Geography itself.
- Atlas Pose: Lampshaded by Father Atlas himself, who says he doesn’t do it “except on special occasions”.
- Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: David suffers from this problem at the beginning of the book, not because he has ADHD, but because his geography book is so boring that it’s legitimately more fun to watch two ants carrying a twig.
- Crowd Song: “We Are The Bordermen”, sung by the border patrolmen (Map people responsible for keeping map borders straight and neat) as they march.
- Dedication: Has a spoofy one:This Book Is Dedicated To Latitude and Longitude, Equator, Compass, Northern Temperate Zone, and a Number of Others in The Magic Map’s Family - Because I Don’t Believe They Ever Have Had A Book Dedicated To Them Before.
- Educational Song: Naturally, since this is an educational book, most of the songs in it teach something. Specifically:
- “In The Great Pacific Ocean” lists the names of islands that can be found in the Pacific Ocean.
- “Longitude and Latitude”, sung by the titular duo, explains what latitude and longitude are, and why they’re useful.
- “Isthmus Of Panama” explains how the strip of land that is Panama connects two continents.
- “We’re The Trade Winds” is half an explanation of why the trade winds occur, and half
the Trade Winds griping about how they’re not useful anymore. - “Capes Of The Universe” lists the names of the famous capes (the landform kind), such as Cape Fear or the Cape of Good Hope.
- Edutainment Show: Teaches children about geography, with a small amount of meteorology (the Northern Temperate Zone, the Trade Winds, and the Gulf Stream’s effect on the world climate) mixed in.
- Elemental Embodiment: A few different Map people take on forms of this kind.
- Any body of water on Earth will have a Map person counterpart who’s entirely composed of water- over the course of the story, David talks to everything from the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, to the Great Salt Lake, to the Strait Of Magellan, to the Amazon River, to even the Gulf Stream. A solid-ice Glacier person also appears during David’s wanderings in Canada.
- The Rocky Mountains and Cape Horn are both depicted in the illustrations as people made out of solid rock.
- On the airy side of things, David sees the Trade Winds (and hears them singing) when he visits the Equator and that quirky Pilot who flies David up to Canada turns out to be the embodiment of the wind itself.
- Fat and Skinny: Longitude and Latitude, respectively.
- Gay Paree: When New York is talking about her sister cities, she mentions Paris as being able to make people feel “so young and gay”.
- Genius Loci: These seem to make up most of the population of the Living Map; over the course of the story, David talks to everything from the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans to the Gulf Stream to New York City to the Northern Temperate Zone to the Amazon River to Newfoundland to the entire Western Hemisphere.
- Global Ignorance: David certainly suffers from this- for example, he thought that the Amazon River was “somewhere in Africa or Asia”- although it gradually lessens as he explores the Living Map and learns from its inhabitants.
- "I Am" Song: The Map people seem rather fond of these, with everyone from the border patrolmen, to Latitude and Longitude, to the Mississippi River, to the Atlantic Ocean, to the Isthmus of Panama, to the Trade Winds, to a Glacier singing one.
- Lily-Pad Platform: David sits on a giant water lily while enjoying lunch in the Amazon River’s domain.
- Long Neck: Having one is the Isthmus of Panama’s main physical trait.
- Magic Map: A map of the world (located in an otherwise-ordinary geography book) that a person can enter, and which is inhabited by Anthropomorphic Personifications of various geographical features and concepts.
- Mother Nature: At one point in his journey, David meets Mother Earth, along with Father Atlas. She considers humanity her adopted children, while her actual children are the various landforms of the Living Map.
- The Musical: Yes, in a book. The inhabitants of the Living Map seem to possess a tendency to start musical numbers, usually about themselves. David lampshades the oddness of this at one point.
- Musicalis Interruptus: Longitude and Latitude interrupt the chorus of their own song when they realize they’re late to give a lecture.
- Painting the Frost on Windows: The border patrolmen are all responsible for keeping the borders on maps straight and neat. Oh, and the Axis of Rotation is in charge of making sure the Earth keeps spinning.
- The Powers That Be: The General Overseer, vaguely-alluded-to boss of the Map people. He finally shows up at the end, and it turns out that he’s A. Geography itself, and B. Actually a pretty nice guy.
- Pimped-Out Dress: All the Cities in the Living Map have jewel-studded evening gowns, representing their beautiful city skylines.
- Random Events Plot: The book mainly consists of David wandering around the Living Map, bumping into various inhabitants, and learning things from them. Not that this makes it bad.
- Sequel Hook: David’s set to have another adventure in the Living Map, this time in the Eastern hemisphere.
- Significant Monogram: The General Overseer’s title can be abbreviated to “G.O.”, and he turns out to be the Anthropomorphic Personification of geography.
- Sleepyhead: The Equator has a tendency to fall asleep at random times, due to the heat around him. (And the Trade Winds’ apparently-very-lulling song doesn’t exactly help matters…)
