Maphead has problems. He wants to meet his mother for the first time, which is problem enough, but he also has to deal with being an alien from the Subtle World who's trying to act like a run‑of‑the‑mill human boy. Some things get easier with practice, like natural sounding speech patterns and hanging out with friends, but others remain a mystery, like just how to tell his human mother who he is, and how to convince his alien father that he'd like to keep up this existence for a while, rather than traveling on to commune with plants as usual. Wholly original characters and a science fiction plot firmly grounded in contemporary England make this quick‑moving novel outstanding in its genre. (Ages 10‑14)

Record-setting Jeopardy! champion and New York Times bestselling author of Planet Funny Ken Jennings explores the world of maps and map obsessives, “a literary gem” (The Atlantic).

Ken Jennings takes readers on a world tour of geogeeks from the London Map Fair to the bowels of the Library of Congress, from the prepubescent geniuses at the National Geographic Bee to the computer programmers at Google Earth. Each chapter delves into a different aspect of map culture: highpointing, geocaching, road atlas rallying, even the “unreal estate” charted on the maps of fiction and fantasy. Jennings also considers the ways in which cartography has shaped our history, suggesting that the impulse to make and read maps is as relevant today as it has ever been.

From the “Here be dragons” parchment maps of the Age of Discovery to the spinning globes of grade school to the postmodern revolution of digital maps and GPS, Maphead is filled with intriguing details, engaging anecdotes, and enlightening analysis. If you’re an inveterate map lover yourself—or even if you’re among the cartographically clueless who can get lost in a supermarket—let Ken Jennings be your guide to the strange world of mapheads.