The Once Upon a Time Map Book: 07/20/18

The Once Upon a Time Map Book by B.G. Hennessy and illustrated by Peter Joyce is a short picture book featuring maps of six classic children's fantasy books.

The maps themselves are very nicely done and manage to make tangible the dreamlike quality of Alice's journey through Wonderland. But they are just that, maps. In a picture book format, there's not much more to do than look — no scrolling in, no discussion on why the map was drawn in the shape it was. There is very little extra to go with these maps, basically no context.

My favorite of the maps was the one for Alice in Wonderland, because it reimagines the entirety of the book in relationship to the Red Queen's hedge maze. To understand the significance, though, one needs to know about Alice Little's background and the Victorian interest in hedge mazes, as none of that is included.

My least favorite map is the one for Oz. This map really isn't needed. There are maps that came with the original editions, including the flipping of East and West (which this map doesn't do, even though the lands are flipped as they should be.

I read this picture book as part of my road narrative project. I am in the process of re-reading the Oz series. I am also reading more recent pastiches of Oz, such as the Dorothy Must Die series. I wanted to see how one might go about mapping road narratives set in alternate worlds. The book did give me an idea of how to map the real and fantasy worlds of Labyrinth

Two stars

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