Compact Atlas of the World Paperback – January 16, 2012

I was really happy with this atlas on many levels. I wanted to have copies for my grandkids as well as for myself. I use maps a lot to check on locations in the news or in the books I'm reading. The only reason this missed five stars is because there's no full country map of the United States so that young learners can see the states in relation to the entire country. I like the sectional maps for the detail, but without the "big picture" a grandchild can't always place a state we've been talking about. I would have loved to have that teaching moment....."See, Gramma was born here in Kansas, and you were born way over here in California." Can't do that with the sectional maps only. Otherwise, this is a great resource.

I didn’t look into this properly before I bought it I guess. Every map is cut exactly in half so it fills the two pages. It’s a lot of map missing in the middle of the book where I can’t see it well. It’s also petty of me, but I am used to seeing North America to the left and Europe, Asia etc to the right. This atlas is backwards to what I’m used to and it keeps throwing me. I really liked DK Student Atlas, which I only saw after purchasing this one. We’ll keep it, but I don’t see us using it as much as we would if the pictures didn’t disappear into the binding.

A good, quality, reference book. Maps are not too specific, but they provide great general information. Sections include political maps, topographical maps, Time Zone maps, Country specific factual information, and World Fact/Statistics. I happen to like this publisher, so I kind of knew what I was getting before even seeing the book. Great for high school students; a little to generic/basic for tertiary education. Great price.

The very old globe in the classroom where I teach English to foreign students was gray & washed out looking. I did 't like relying on it. It was for my sake that I decided to replace it. The day I brought the new one in the students became animated & spoke English so much better as they each spun the globe to show the others their country of oragin. The colors are bright & the text easy to read. My donation to International House sparked a staff member to replace a dingy wall map with a new more colorful one for the front foyer. I see students taking their new friends over to tell about their country.

This is not as detailed an atlas as I would have liked, but other atlases I have are too detailed. The maps are by region, even within the USA. Some of the regions are pretty broad.All of Africa in four (4) maps is too large scale to be of a lot of benefit. I use an atlas as a reference source and, so far, many of the references I seek do not show up. For a large-scale reference only, this atlas should fill most needs

I bought this as a Christmas gift for my sister who wanted an up-to-date Atlas. (Her's still included the Soviet Union.) After looking at several more expensive ones, I decided on this one because it is very current...it includes South Sudan...and it is inexpensive enough to buy a new edition every time one is published. The world changes so fast that buying a large, high-priced atlas did not make sense for a casual user who mostly wants to know where all the "stans" are and similar questions. My sister has used it several times already and really likes it.

I saw a copy of this in a local library and ordered it from Amazon because of that. It fits my needs as a general reference work, quite nicely. And at a very reasonable cost. I would recommend it for those who want that detail at an affordable price.

This is a good map, however there are still some items that are missing that are required for Classical Conversations Challenge A class, one will need to google some items since they are not listed in the atlas!