Where Am I? presents a general overview of the development of navigation and map-making from the earliest maps on bark to the Global Positioning System. The text is clear, concise, and readable, and the author does a good job of balancing involving stories of navigators and inventors with the rather less exciting descriptions of navigational tools and theory.

Some readers will be struck by similarities between Where Am I? and some of the works of David Macaulay. A comparison of Where Am I? with Castle, for example, shows that both books are exactly the same size, use similar typefaces, and have about the same number of pages. The finely detailed, accurate, and realistic style of line drawings used in both is also quite similar.

While Smith’s book doesn’t quite come up to Macaulay’s standard (either in drawing or text), his illustrations do work well, both in showing the intricate details of navigation tools, as well as in presenting scenes of ships at sea or explorers approaching ancient cities. The reproductions of early maps are sometimes less successful, however, mostly because they lack suitable labels in English. Maps such as the “strip maps” used by the crusaders, or the medieval “imaginary maps” are labelled only in Latin, which makes them difficult to decipher. Labels could also have helped in illustrations of some of the navigational tools. For example, the reader is told that using a “back-staff” involves sliding a “transom,” but since the illustration is unlabelled, the reader is left to puzzle out exactly which part of the instrument is being referred to. It would also have been helpful to have an accurate modern map placed next to some of the historical maps to show more clearly exactly what areas these maps are attempting to describe.

Although these changes might have improved Where Am I?, it is still a good introduction to navigation and map-making and a good choice for both school and public libraries.