- Picture Books
- Ages 5–9
- Everyday Life
I Wonder Where I Am?
Part of ImaginationView the full series
A wildly inventive look at maps: not just the kind that show where you are, but treasure maps, maps of your feelings and maps of how things work. A playful, curiosity-firing picture book from the Imagination series.
- Best for5–9
- FormatPicture
- Length32 pp
- Read aloud~6 min
The vibe
What it’s like.
Style
- Conversational
- Comedic
Tone
- Funny
- Whimsical
- Thought provoking
- Warm
Themes
Experience meters
What’s it about?
The story.
A map shows you where you are, but is that all a map can do? In the latest of his bestselling Imagination books, Shinsuke Yoshitake takes an everyday object, the humble map, and unfolds it into something far bigger and stranger. There are maps to hidden treasure, maps of your own feelings, maps of how things work, maps of the past and maps of places that don't exist at all. Page by page, his spare, hilarious drawings reveal that a map is really just a clever way of helping someone understand something better, and that almost anything can be mapped if you look at it the right way. Funny, ingenious and quietly profound, I Wonder Where I Am? invites children to see the world as something to be charted, questioned and reimagined. A gloriously curious read-aloud and a springboard for children to draw maps of their own worlds, real and invented.
Fit check
Right for your child?
Where it lands by age
A great shared read from about 4 or 5, with plenty of detail for 6-to-9s to explore alone. Its inventive, gently educational take on maps has strong crossover appeal for the adult reading along.
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- Best fit · 5–9
- Read aloud · 4–9
- Independent · 6–9
Prose load
Light
Visual support
Very high
Reluctant-reader friendly
Very
Read-aloud quality
Strong
Works well for
- Reading aloud
- Reading together
- Gift-buying
- Reluctant readers
Nothing in the book is likely to concern most parents. Safe to recommend without preview.
Bedtime suitability
2 / 5 · Better outside bedtime
Sensitive-child
5 / 5 · Good fit
Graphic intensity
1 / 5 · None
Best for
- Imaginative play
- Maps and geography
- Curious minds
- Read aloud
- Philosophy for children
Avoid if
- Wants action adventure
- Wants a strong plot
Particularly good for children who are…
- Interested in art and creativity
- Interested in science
In the classroom
How it works in school.
A lively cross-curricular prompt linking geography and creative work: after reading, children design their own maps, of feelings, journeys, invented places, practising the idea that a map is any way of making something easier to understand.
A book children love that happens to support school — never a stand-in for the texts a class is taught with.
Why it lands
Why they love it.
Why kids love it
Kids love the leap from ordinary maps to maps of treasure, feelings and how things work, and each page dares them to invent a map of their own. It rewards close looking, and it makes the everyday feel full of hidden possibilities.
- Secret world
- Going on a quest
- Trickery and cleverness
Why parents love it
A clever, funny book that quietly teaches children to see maps, and information, as tools for understanding the world. Yoshitake's inventive drawings reward repeat reads and reliably spark the kind of 'what could we map?' play that spills off the page.
- Shared humour
- Beautiful illustrations
- Conversation starter
- Educational for adult too
In the series
Imagination.
5 books · open the series →
About the author & illustrator
Shinsuke Yoshitake.
If you liked this
Three ways out of this book.
If you liked this, try…
Lateral matches. Same shelf, different texture.
Come into this from…
Easier or preparing reads — perfect lead-ins.
More like this…
Books that share themes and topics with this one.
