Hi I'm Julie Dillemuth thanks for joining me for a reading of my book Camilla,
Cartographer it's illustrated by Laura Wood and published by Magination Press
which is the children's imprint of the American Psychological Association all
right do you know what kind of animal Camilla is she is a wild boar look at
these beautiful designs the Laura wood created they are inspired etruscan
inspired designs from ancient Italy alright when the whirling swirling snow
dusted over the windows and silenced the forest outside
Camilla knew what she wanted to do she arranged three boxes in front of the
fire and opened her favorite collection what do you think her favorite
collection is any guesses see all the details there for room what do you think
is in her collection so many maps old ones on crisping paper with golden brown
edges glossy vibrant new ones left behind by summertime hikers she had mini
maps and skinny maps for old maps and folded maps she even had maps of
imaginary places then Camilla took out the most fascinating one of all an
ancient map of her own forest fragile and faded and scented with time her
whiskers quivered her snout shivered what was it like to explore and to make
the first paths she whispered by now everything has been explored and mapped
her hoof traced the outlines of buildings and roads it was so different
here long ago these paths have been lost and forgotten outside the snow
higher and deeper the next morning Camila awoke to a thump thump thump on
the window there's too much snow that her neighbor parsley I can't find the
path to the creek I'll help Camila said so there's parsley knocking
on the window they trammeled and tamped and trudged
shuffled stifled and swooshed does that look like fun tunneling to the
snow until they hit a door we're back at my house
parsley snorted how will we get anywhere this nut could take days to melt a
little bit upset right now Camila dashed inside and riffled through
a box we have this she held out the hikers nap of the forest they set out
again why do you think the map is gonna help them it's a good idea right let's
see what happens but the snow covered everything familiar boulders ruins
signposts every forest path camilla tried to match up something anything to
the map but it was no use it's like everything we know is gone
parsley the words huffed out in cloud puffs were lost and we haven't even left
home camilla held very still her whiskers quivered her snout shivered
this she said is uncharted territory what's that
parsley asked a new land camilla said unexplored and unmapped she flew inside
for supplies came and she comes back all decked out with her supplies you were in
charge of this she said handing parsley a compass are we still trying to find
the path parsley asked Camilla leaned in close we get to make new paths
our own paths pretty exciting kind of what she always wanted
they scrabbled scraped and stomped Camila says we know the creek is east
same as the Morning Sun and Parsi says then we'd better change course because
we're heading southeast right so parses got the compass and since they can't see
because there's so much snow they're tunneling through the snow they have to
use the compass to make sure that they stay in the right direction they get to
the creek they see what happened here they went this way and they hit what
they hit that tree so I changed course and then I hit this old ruin of a
building because this is this takes place in northern Italy and then they
went this way to head more to the creek but then they hit this big boulder and
they had to change course again and now parsley saying you know what if we don't
change course we're not gonna get across here to the creek so they're navigating
using a compass because they can't see where they're going at all the snow they
pushed packed and pelted like they're having a snowball fight along the way
they and then they hit this wall and I say uh-oh they mold measured and marked
and then finally Parsi says we should go this way
tada Camila said when they reached the creek now we map she organized her
supplies and began to draw her house the creeks the paths she and parsley had
cleared the tallest trees and towers that poke death out of the snow in the
bottom corner she sketched a compass rose in the shape of a snowflake across
the top of the map she wrote a title in a curly flourish and she signed it
Camila cartographer so a cartographer is a person who draws maps I mean here is
her map alright so she calls that her title is valle Nostra didn't even our
Valley the snow and there's her Camila cartographer
curly flourish and she has the creeks the paths that she and parsley cleared
and here is a scale bar so that she knows how much distance they have gone
because she was keeping track as she used her compass she had kept talk of
the distances so that she could put it on her map and here's her compass rose
in the shape of a snowflake and the legend in that legend that tells you
what the different symbols are so turns this you can see the different symbols
and what they mean the tree the her home the river and the new path that she and
parsley made there's more to explore partially said before the snow melts
Camilla froze when it melts our paths will be lost and forgotten she hugged
her map and squeezed her eyes shut the snow made this islands especially quiet
she opened her eyes our paths will always be here on this map so she
realizes that even though the snow was gonna melt in the past we'll go away
they'll always be there on her map so that will preserve her paths forever
just like she saw the ancient paths that are no longer around alright so here is
them drawing some more maps and then they have some more fun in the snow they
spend the rest of the afternoon and making more paths playing in the snow
and adding to the map back home Camilla placed her new map next to the fragile
and faded one she traced the paths with a hoof not everything has already been
mapped her whiskers quivered her snout shivered I'm going to need another box
so she is excited about making more maps and she realizes that you know she
thinks in the beginning that everything's already been explored but
there's still a lot more to discover and explore
and that's how it is with all of us there's still more to go out and
discover and explore so I hope this inspires you to go out and make your own
discoveries and explorations and that's the end of the story thanks for joining
me for camellia cartographer I'm Julie delimit
you