Manhattan: Mapping the Story of an Island

by Jennifer Thermes

"An innovative look back through time, Manhattan Maps follows the history of Manhattan Island from its natural formation to the bustling city today. It explores the ways in which nature and people are connected, tracking the people who lived on Manhattan from the Lenape Indians to Dutch settlers hunting for beaver pelts to early Americans and beyond, and how they've (literally) shaped the island (and vice versa). Jen Thermes highlights watershed moments where nature demanded action of New Yorkers--the Great Fire of 1835, the Great Blizzard of 1888, and Hurricane Sandy in 2012. In special sidebars, she closely traces specific threads of history and their lasting impact today--New York as a hub for immigration and the slave trade, for example. An epic volume that chronicles the rise of Manhattan through the lenses of geography, city planning, sociology, historiography, and more, Manhattan Maps is a groundbreaking format that will fascinate curious readers of all ages"--

Genres: Picture Books, Nonfiction, History, Childrens, New York, Maps, Nature

64 pages, Hardcover

Published August 6, 2019

About the author

JENNIFER THERMES is an award-winning children’s book author-illustrator and map illustrator. Her nonfiction picture book The Indestructible Tom Crean recently received the Bank Street College of Education’s 2024 Flora Stieglitz Straus Award in the Younger Reader category and is an ALSC Notable Children’s Book. Both Tom Crean and her book A Place Called America were named to the Kirkus Best Picture Books of 2023 list. She also creates black & white maps for middle-grade and young adult novels including the bestselling Vanderbeekers series. Jennifer is fascinated by big-picture ideas that span history, adventure, and the natural world, and weaves maps throughout her stories to explore new places and visualize how the past connects to our lives today.

To learn more please visit www.jenniferthermes.com, @jenthermes on Twitter and @jenniferthermes on Instagram.

Reviews

[Lisa Vegan · Rating 5 out of 5]

10 star book! Except that there is no way for it to not abruptly end, unfortunately. It covers the period from 20,000-10,000 years ago to 2018. Actually, millions of years ago but 20,000 years back in human history/habitation of the area. So anything important that happens in/about Manhattan 2019 and into the future will not be covered.

This picture book is so dense with information and images that it felt as though I was reading a full length history book. It took me longer to go from start to finish than it generally takes for me to read a book of any length. Primarily that was because I enjoyed poring over every detail in all the many maps and the accompanying illustrations.

I love maps in books and this is a book of many maps and map details. Of course, I was going to love it!!!

That is takes place in Manhattan, NYC, a place for which I have mostly fond memories, in addition to being full of maps made it special for me. This brought back many memories and had me longing for a repeat trip to Manhattan even more than my usual wish for one.

The maps and other pictures are gorgeous and contain so much great information. I love how dogs and certain other animals have repeated appearances though various time periods.

I learned a lot from the book, about the past and the near present too.

In addition to many detailed maps over time and illustrations, some of the text contents to give an idea, in chronological order: millions of year ago, Native Peoples, the English, Dutch New Amsterdam 1625-1664, British New York 1664-1783, the Collect Pond, the American Revolution and the British occupation 1776-1783, New York New York U.S.A., A Grid for a City 1811, the Great Fire of 1835, A Plan for a Park and Seneca Village, Central Park, A Growing City the 1880s, Immigration and the Island, the Gilded Age 1870-1900, Bridges, Skyscrapers, Hurrican Sandy, Manhattan Today, and Afterword. Okay, all that tells so little. There is so much detail in pictures and words. I hadn’t known George Washington was sworn in the then Capital, for instance. In the back there is an extensive tiny print full page Time Line with some events & details that don’t make it into the book proper and a page of select sources including other books, websites, museums, and a just for fun short section. There is so much more covered than what I put in this paragraph. So much!

As with all books I love I have an especially hard time reviewing this book. I cannot adequately describe it or do it justice. If I was in a position to buy even one book right now I would likely purchase this one.

Highly, highly recommended for independent readers of all ages who have any interest in any of the following: Manhattan, NYC, American history, natural history especially of the general area, and map lovers, and those who appreciate beautiful illustrations.

Note: I thought I was the first patron to borrow this from the library (I was the one who requested that the library purchase this book for circulation) but it came to me a bit damaged. I was almost glad. The inside front and back covers had been taped down in such a way that they covered important content (crucial text as well as pictures!) on the inside front and back covers. I find that so annoying, but normally if I couldn’t see under the flaps I’d carefully look at a copy at a bookstore just to look at the hidden portions but this way I was able to see everything as I read. I can tell this wasn’t done by a librarian for the benefit of borrowers because it wasn’t done in a clean or professional way; a bit of both of the book’s pages was torn so I couldn’t really be glad that the book came to me this way. It’s a beautiful collectable type book so it’s a shame, though it is perfectly readable as is.

[Skip · Rating 5 out of 5]

A picture book filled with maps and all sorts of information about the island and history of Manhattan. Starting with basics on the flora and fauna of the region, the arrival of the Lenape natives, moving on to the arrival of Dutch, who “bought” the island for $24 and some beads. Jennifer Thermes then traces the development of New York City, recognizing contributions by those often left aside (slaves, immigrants, and indigenous people.) The maps showing the city’s development are a joy, including wonderful illustrations, of the marvels – both natural and manmade – such as bridges, subways, skyscrapers, Central Park, etc. Sadly, my library copy covered the inside front and back covers, which have not-to-be-missed content for readers. Recommended for readers of all ages.

[Lynda · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have had the pleasure of getting a sneak peek at this book and it is STUNNING. I mean, truly stunning. I can't wait to get the final copy!! Eight out of five stars.

[Panda Incognito · Rating 2 out of 5]

This beautifully illustrated, detailed history of Manhattan has a fatal flaw: it completely skips over 9/11.

At first, I thought that I had missed a page, but even though I quadruple checked, there was nothing else there. A double page spread about skyscrapers includes and labels the World Trade Center, dating it from 1973-2001, but nothing in this book directly acknowledges the cataclysmic event that is forever part of Manhattan's history.

You might imagine that the author skipped over this tragic event to sanitize her story, but no! This prehistoric-to-modern-day history covers colonization, hunting beavers to extinction, slavery, mistreatment of Native Americans, continued racial inequity and mistreatment of black citizens, anti-immigrant sentiment, child industrial labor, the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire, an 1800s fire in the business district of Manhattan, and flooding from Hurricane Sandy. This book is honest about difficult parts of Manhattan's history, and this makes the omission of 9/11 even more bizarre and inexplicable.

Even though this book provides a brief and thorough introduction to Manhattan's history, providing a wealth of historical details and little-known information about the island's natural features and city planning, I can only rate it two stars. I am still shocked that the author would neglect to mention an earth-shattering event that is forever entwined with both Manhattan's history and the history America at large. 9/11 was a complex event with intricate geopolitical context and implications, but this author had already proved her adeptness at explaining complex issues at a child's comprehension level, and there are plenty of children's books that provide satisfactory explanations of 9/11 without being gruesome or overwhelming. If nothing else, she could have followed their cues.

There is simply no excuse for this. I would be fascinated to hear what the author would say to explain her choice, but nothing makes up for it, and the omission is even more problematic because this book is targeted towards school children. A kid who doesn't know much about 9/11 could read this book without even realizing that it happened in Manhattan. If a child doesn't recognize the World Trade Center on the busy, complex skyscraper spread, or doesn't know why the towers came down in 2001, they could finish this book without learning about one of the most important events that ever happened in Manhattan. 9/11 changed America and had tremendous, far-reaching global implications. It's not something you can just skip past.

It baffles me that the author left out something so world-changing and important, and I'm also confused by other reviewers not even mentioning this aspect of the book. I kept second guessing myself, thinking that I must have missed something or gotten confused, but there weren't any pages stuck together. It's not just NOT THERE.

Kids can still benefit from this book and learn a lot, but parents and educators need to know that this book provides a selective, omitted version of Manhattan's history, and they should be prepared to fill in the gaps for children and explain what happened on 9/11, how it affected Manhattan, and how the horror and aftermath still reverberate today.

[Barbara · Rating 5 out of 5]

A well-deserved Orbis Pictus Honor winner, this picture book is filled with maps and all sorts of sidebars and information about the island of Manhattan. Starting with the flora and fauna native to the region and then moving to the arrival of the Lenape who flourished in the region, the book shows how quickly and irrevocably the area changed with the arrival of white Europeans in search of land and natural resources. Sadly, the once-robust beaver population was hunted to the point that there were no beavers left by the 1880s. The author carefully describes the inroads made by those who built the city, and she is careful to acknowledge the contributions of slaves, immigrants, and indigenous populations while highlighting some of the city's ups and downs. There is information provided about the area's bridges, its parks, its skyscrapers, and some of its current challenges. The illustrations, created with watercolor, colored pencil, and ink, are stunning and depict the island's ever-growing population. It's hard to find an inch left on which to fit a single structure. A timeline, sources and an Afterword discussing the English elm tree that appears on several pages, add even more to the delights of reading this book, one sure to fascinate adults as much as youngsters. This one could easily rival many history books for adults on the same topic. It is highly recommended for history classes and classroom libraries. For anyone who doubts how fast humans have changed the world around them, this book provides vivid evidence to refute that argument.

[Michael Fitzgerald · Rating 2 out of 5]

Howard Zinn for kiddies. Also takes the offensive position that humans are not part of nature.

[Mary Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book covers all our social studies standards! Gorgeous, thorough, balanced. An amazing story of one place over time.

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

20,000 years ago, the Laurentide ice sheet covering this island was melting, making way for the Lenape and other Native American tribes to inhabit the island. The Lenape names it Mannahatta!
Thus begins this incredibly wonderful and pictorial history of Manhattan told bit by bit from the early Dutch history, through their giving over to the British, then fought for and taken by Americans in the Revolutionary War. That settled the ownership, but Jennifer Thermes gives us readers so much more.
A map with a key spreads out on the endpapers, adding to the history with locations, dates of buildings built, and explanations, like why the East River is not really a river. Most double-page spreads follow the history in brief paragraphs, illustrated with both large paintings and small extra facts added in various ways like along the lower part of the pages or in split parts. Jennifer tells about the decision of the grid layout and the result of many losing their homes and farmers and Native Americans forced to sell their land. Special pages are there telling about Central Park, problems with a growing city, and the influx of immigrants on their way to America, but first Ellis Island. Toward the end, special times are highlighted like the snowstorm of 1888, leading to the decision to create the subway system and the terrible time of Hurricane Sandy. There are double spreads for the bridges and for the skyscrapers.
Diverse peoples are there from early history to today, all created in watercolor, pencil, and ink. The numerous and beautiful maps show original spellings from the research of the original maps. It was intriguing to do comparisons from the early ones to most recent.
Thermes, author of Grandma Gatewood Hikes the Appalachian and Charles Darwin's Around The World Adventure, adds an extensive timeline, source list, website list, museum suggestions and a Just for Fun to-do list. Wow! It is a fascinating book that can give a push for different topics of research, all centered on Manhattan!

[Margaret · Rating 5 out of 5]

Patience and Fortitude have been residing there since 1911. It is the site of the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s. It is the home of the tallest building in the world, the Empire State Building completed in 1931, until 1971. Overlooking the East River, the accommodations for the United Nations have been there for more than seventy years. It is here, in Times Square, each new year begins with a countdown.

The island of Manhattan has a recorded past dating back to the Lenape, Native Americans, at least 10,000 years ago. Manhattan: Mapping the Story of an Island (Abrams Books for Young Readers, August 6, 2019) written and illustrated by Jennifer Thermes chronicles the growth of this incredible space from the earliest human inhabitants to present day. It is a journey of blending people, places and designing spaces.


My full recommendation: https://librariansquest.blogspot.com/...

[Kathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book! It is such a gem. Loads of interesting information on NY that makes you want to learn more about some of the details that the author talks about. It made me want to know more about the elevated trains, the elevators that didn't have safety brakes, the great blizzard of 1888, the Mohawk ironworkers who built the tall buildings and bridges, the 350 year old English Elmtree and more.

This book spans a time when the Island was inhabited by the Lenape, and the visit by Henry Hudson to the present including the inventions and natural disasters that helped change the people and land. Jennifer Thermes packs so much information in a small book and in a style that makes it interesting.

I can't recommend this book enough!

[Sandy Brehl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Marvelously intricate and detailed, this encompasses the complexity of time and space as relates to a small mass of land that many believe is the center of the planet. Intriguing and informative, a great read-through and also a long term reference.

[Emma · Rating 5 out of 5]

Informative and fun - I learned so much about Manhattan and it seemed very balanced in its coverage of different groups and different eras, at least as much as could be possible in a shorter book for younger audiences. Very well done and it was a very entertaining read!

[GlitterWater79 · Rating 5 out of 5]

As someone born and raised in NYC I thought there was not much if anything I didn’t know about Manhattan, but I was so wrong. I learned several things I didn’t know about the borough from its beginning through to the 21st century. I appreciated the careful attention to some of the more delicate but no less important historical issues to raise namely displacement of and violence against Indigenous people, the ways that enslaved labor built so much of the city, and the history of Seneca Village and the African Burial Grounds discovered in construction. I also liked how certain periods and individuals emerged as characters in the story like Olmsted and the building of Central Park and the Guilded Age.

The illustrations are wonderful. I especially love the scale of this book given its topic and how the Thermes designs the pages to get in so much information in innovative ways.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love books like this - so much history and fascinating tidbits in a beautifully illustrated book. Covering a huge swath of time - prehistory through modern day, there is a ton of information covered. This is the kind of book you could read through numerous times with your child and catch something new on each reading.

My only complaint, and the reason why I am only giving it 4 stars rather than 5, is that the author, for whatever reason, completely leaves out 9/11. There is an illustration of the World Trade Center towers that includes the dates it was built and destroyed, but no other information was given. I feel like that was a pretty significant moment in Manhattan history to completely leave out, particularly when other difficult topics like slavery were mentioned.

While it is a picture book, I think this is best for a slightly older audience, but it's engaging enough to work through slowly with a younger child.

[Clarissa]

research for work 🫡

[Chris J · Rating 5 out of 5]

Historical geography for the littles! This book adds to the small but mighty genre of historical geography picture books, most-notably the classics of Holling C. Holling.

[Tara Weiss · Rating 5 out of 5]

Strong visual details with maps depicting the development of Manhattan from a Native American village to an expansive metropolis.

[June · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unfortunately, the library book had the cover glued down so I was unable to see the first quarter and last quarter of the map.

The history and maps of Manhattan from glaciers melting to present day. Lenape, Dutch. British, American Capital, development of the Randal's Grid Plan, 1835 Great Fire, Central Park, Seneca Village, immigration, Great Blizzard of 1888, Subway, Bridges, Skyscrapers, Hurricane Sandy, and the Hangman's Elm.

Accessible history of Manhattan and interesting seeing the maps through it all.

[Richie Partington · Rating 5 out of 5]

Richie’s Picks: MANHATTAN: MAPPING THE STORY OF AN ISLAND by Jennifer Thermes, Abrams Books for Young Readers, August 2019, 64p., ISBN: 978-1-4197-3655-1

“Skyscrapers and subways and stations
Staring up at the United Nations”
-- Alice Cooper, “Big Apple Dreamin’ (Hippo)” (1973)

Back when the city only occupied the southern tip of the island,

“The Collect Pond sat north of the city, fed by an underground spring. It was a kettle pond, scooped out from the land when the glacier that covered the island retreated more than twenty thousand years earlier. It was the island’s best source of fresh water. Two streams flowing from its east and west sides sometimes overflowed and split the island in half. For centuries, the area was home to the Lenape village of Werpoes.
By the 1700s, free Africans lived nearby. In those days, black people were not allowed to be buried in the public cemetery at Trinity Church since it was inside city limits, so they laid their loved ones to rest near the pond’s edge.
As the city on the island grew, breweries, tanneries, and slaughterhouses moved next to the pond. They dumped foul waste in its clear waters. A canal was dug to try to drain the putrid mess into the Hudson River, but the rise and fall of tides only sloshed the filthy water around. The stench was unbearable.
In time, the city decided to fill the pond and canal. The canal became Canal Street. They built fancy homes on top of what was once the pond and called it Paradise Square. But soon, gas from the decomposing landfill gurgled up. Buildings tilted and sank in the mud. The rich moved out, and poor people moved in.
By the mid-1800s, the neighborhood became known as Five Points, for the five streets that crossed the area. A jail called the Tombs was built nearby. Gangs roamed the streets. Murder and mayhem ruled. Some tried to make Five Points a better place for the people who lived there, but once again, the city tore everything down.”

I’ve always been entranced by Manhattan. My first memories of being there go back 55 years, to a morning when we piled off of a yellow school bus on our way to the American Museum of Natural History. I recall the then-gray sootiness that hung in the air and adhered to the buildings and the smells coming from the goods of street vendors, the chestnuts over charcoal, and soft pretzels.

A few years later, I began riding the train into Manhattan by myself or with friends, for school research projects, rock concerts, and visits to the so-called hippie stores then in abundance in the East Village.

Jennifer Thermes’s MANHATTAN: MAPPING THE STORY OF AN ISLAND, is a visual delight and a nonfiction treasure. A wealth of maps, each one a work of art, along with other captivating illustrations, provide details of the island’s evolution from home to oysters, beavers, and the Lenape Indians to present-day land of subways and skyscrapers. Along the journey, we encounter cultural, geological, and political events. There are discussions of slavery and other trading, the treatment of the native people, the obliteration of the island’s 60 million beavers, the fires, blizzards, skyscrapers, and parks.

Did you know that the island’s name came from the Lenape? The author notes that, “They called it Mannahatta, which means ‘island of many hills.’” These days, I live in San Francisco. I know about walking and driving up and down hills. So how have I possibly missed the hills of Manhattan?

It seems that the geography of a city can be deliberately and radically altered. After an 1811 city commission planned a grid system for new streets in the expanding city, the island’s hills were leveled. We learn that, “The canals were filled in, and the land expanded into the East River by filling it with rocks and earth, broken crockery, oyster shells, wood from old shipwrecks, rotting garbage, and even dead animals!” There are fascinating, if sometimes grotesque details about the changes upon changes that transformed Manhattan from a wooded wonderland to what it is today.

I’m flying back to Manhattan for a visit next month. It still feels like Wonderland to me. Thanks to Jennifer Thermes’s maps and historic details, I’m going to be wandering around with a whole new view of it.

Richie Partington, MLIS
Richie's Picks http://richiespicks.pbworks.com
https://www.facebook.com/richiespicks/
richiepartington@gmail.com

[Emmaj]

For publishers wondering how to address tricky topics in picture books, look no further.

"From the start the brutal practice of buying selling, and trading human beings from Africa and the Caribbean was a part of New York's business. Under Dutch rule, some enslaved people could purchase limited freedom for themselves. But the English were harsher and revoked many of their rights." p.10
That's pretty much all it says about slavery.

"Millions of people from around the world have been coming to the Island since Europeans first landed in North America... Sometimes older groups of immigrants forgot they were once new, too. And sometimes ugly laws were passed to keep the new ones out." p.32
That's pretty much all it says about immigration.

You don't need to go crazy over-explaining. But you need to acknowledge that history has its ugly sides too. Its a book for five-year-olds. If they want to know more, they'll ask. Just give them the opportunity to know there is a question to ask.

[Nadine in NY Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was fascinating! It’s full of great colored pencil & watercolor artwork, with informative sidebars on almost every page, and of course it’s full of maps.

I grew up in the area and I’ve been to Manhattan many times, but I didn’t know much about the history beyond the basics (Wall St was a wall, Olmstead designed Central Park, that sort of thing). I had no idea that the oldest tree in Manhattan is an elm tree in Washington Sq Park - I walked right past this tree last spring and didn’t even know it. (I also had no idea McSorley’s Pub didn’t allow women before 1970 - yikes!)

This is quite informative and will be too long for a preschooler to get through in one sitting, break it up over several evenings and it should be a hit with all children who have been to Manhattan. I read this in about an hour, but I’m an old grown up! (And then my map-loving teen took it to read next - truly all-ages appeal!)

I especially appreciated that Thermes does not gloss over the unpleasant parts of the history (the slave trading, eminent domain land grabs, tenement housing, etc).

There is A LOT here, almost any two page spread could become an entire picture book. And there is even more information packed into a timeline and appendix at the end! But there were still a few things I felt were missing.
* She doesn’t explicitly state why Broadway is the way it is (ie, not part of the grid). She suggests, with illustration, that it was the original footpath used by the Leni Lenape when he traveled to the southern tip of Manhattan each summer to gather oysters, and she suggests that it was the original post road from early Manhattan up to Boston. But she doesn’t spell it out.
* Why did people begin to expand the island (push the coastline out) with trash and fill? Was it an accident because they were using it as a trash dump, or did they do it intentionally? So much of the island was still wilderness at that point, why go to that trouble?
* She points out that Manhattan was the first capital of the young USA, President Washington was sworn in there (in the Federal Building) and she tells us that it was tiny compared to Boston & Philadelphia, which lead me to wonder: why was Manhattan the first capital?
* How did early people (both the Leni Lenape and the colonists) get to Manhattan? Did they use boats? Was there a natural land bridge up to the north? Did they build bridges?
* What does Haarlem mean? Was there another Dutch settlement up there, separate from New Amsterdam?

[Heidi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thermes has created an absolutely amazing book about the history of the island of Manhattan. Not only did I learn a lot reading it, but I thoroughly enjoyed studying each of the maps to see all the changes that occurred over time. The book is not a complete history of the island, after all it's a picture book. But it gives a nice overview of the events that made a contribution to the development of the island. Major events are illustrated, but at least half the book is made up of the illustrated maps showing the changes to the island as more people came to the island and as the city grew. I appreciated how easy to read the maps were. Normally, I would prefer more precise maps, but these maps are so beautifully illustrated that I loved looking at them. A delightfully informative book that is also beautifully designed and illustrated. A real winner of a book for those young readers who are as fascinated with geography as I am.

[Beverly · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is as much a history of Manhattan Island as a mapping of it. Beginning with the Native people who lived on the island, Thermes works through the years from the coming of the Dutch, to the coming of the British, and on up to the present. Many, many historical events are included, with maps of what Manhattan looked like at that time. Thermes includes the planning of and making of Central Park. Eventually, the entire island of Manhattan was taken over by city. This is an interesting history book. It is not intended to teach children how to make a map, but it includes maps for every era of history that the author writes about. The illustrations in watercolor, colored pencil, and ink are extremely detailed and instructive. The back matter includes a time line, a bibliography/website list, and a list of 4 museums on the island. This wordy book is probably for about 4th grade through 8th grade.

[Julie Fortenberry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! Gorgeous watercolors. An epic undertaking, rigorously researched and lovingly detailed.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gorgeous and fascinating. This is probably more for middle grade than middle school, but any age will find something of interest. It's a simple history of Manhattan. Though the book has more details than most people would know, there are many things that are just mentioned. It is somewhat multicultural - mentioning the Lenape inhabitants and the African American ones. The illustration is beautiful. Beware! It will not fit upright easily on standard bookshelves, because it is tall.

[Edward Sullivan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A handsomely illustrated history packed with remarkably detailed maps and great information.

[Emily Masters · Rating 5 out of 5]

excellent book about the history of manhattan island, staring with the indigenous tribes who lived there. it doesn't shy away from the ugly parts of history- beavers being hunted out, slaves being brought in, african americans being forced out of the land they bought. has great illustrations and was an informative and easy read.

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great large-format picture book history packed with fascinating facts and charming, detailed drawings. Obviously this is great for anyone with a tie to New York, but even without a connection it works to tell the story of development, and of the trade-offs, tragedies and successes as a city emerges.

[Maria Caplin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perfect for geography, mapping, exploration, immigration. Would like to think about chunking it and use it all year perhaps a hook? Lots of text

[Cheryl]

Would be wonderful if I were planning a trip there, or lived in the area. As is, it was just too much for my attention span. January 2023