Have you ever had to find your way home? When Lucy gets distracted by a delicious jar of peanut butter, she gets separated from her family. With the help of an owl, and his birds-eye-view, Lucy uses her senses to find her way back to her family’s cozy den.

Hear author, Julie Dillemuth, PhD, read Lucy in the City aloud! For more information and fun activities to help your child learn spatial thinking skills, check out this blog post.

by Julie Dillemuth, PhD

This Article's Author

Julie Dillemuth, PhD, is a spatial cognition geographer and children's writer. She is passionate about writing picture books for children that help develop spatial thinking skills. Her stories have appeared in Highlights for Children and Odyssey magazines. She is also the author of Lucy in the City and Mapping My Day.

Related Books from Magination Press

  • Lucy in the City: A Story About Developing Spatial Thinking Skills

    Julie Dillemuth, Ph.D.

    One night, Lucy the raccoon follows her family out of their den, headed for the best garbage bins in town. Distracted by a jar of peanut butter, she gets separated from her family. How will she ever find her way back to her family and her cozy den?

    With the help of a friendly owl and his bird’s-eye view, Lucy tunes into the world around her and navigates herself home!

    Reading this book with your children will help them develop their own spatial thinking skills — how we think about and understand the world around us and use concepts of space for problem solving. Early exposure to spatial concepts can help foster this type of cognitive development in children and boost their math and science learning as they progress through school.

    Includes a Note to Parents, Caregivers, and Professionals with more information about spatial concepts, as well as questions, games, and activities designed to encourage children’s spatial thinking skills.

  • Camilla, Cartographer

    Julie Dillemuth, Ph.D.

    Camilla loves maps. Old ones, new ones, she loves them all! She often imagines what it must have been like to explore and discover a new path for the first time.

    One morning, Camilla wakes up to a huge snow storm. Her neighbor Parsley can’t find the path to the creek. But Camilla has her old map — which inspires her to make her own path and her own map!

    Includes a Note to Parents and Caregivers celebrating discovery, adventurous problem-solving, and a love of maps.

  • Mapping My Day

    Julie Dillemuth, PhD

    Follow Flora and her family as she takes us through her day with maps — from breakfast, to school, and even through a dog agility course!

    Kids love maps! Learning to read and draw maps is a fun and natural way to develop spatial thinking skills — how we think about and understand the world around us and use concepts of space for problem solving.

    Includes a Note to Parents, Caregivers, and Professionals with more information about spatial thinking and awareness, as well as games and activities designed to encourage map-building skills and to enhance math and science learning.