Map Grid Explorer

A postcard flapped on the fence. It had no picture, just a puzzle.

"From Canberra," read Suzy. "Find me at thirty-five degrees south, one hundred and forty-nine degrees east."

"She's hiding?" asked Little Thunder.

"She's at home," said Spike, unrolling the big world map in the shed. "These are coordinates. They tell you exactly where a place is."

He traced a line across the middle of the map. "This is the equator. It splits the world into two halves, the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. The lines that run across, like the equator, are lines of latitude. They tell you how far north or south you are."

"Thirty-five south," said Suzy, sliding her paw down. "Below the equator. So Canberra is in the Southern Hemisphere."

"Like us," said Little Thunder.

"Now the lines that go from top to bottom," said Spike. "Lines of longitude. They tell you how far east or west. You start at a line through Greenwich, near London, and count."

Little Thunder ran his hoof to the right. "One hundred... one hundred and forty-nine east." He stopped where his hoof crossed Suzy's paw. "Here!"

They leaned close. Right where they met was a small dot in south-eastern Australia.

"Canberra!" they cried.

"Let's try one," said Suzy, turning over the postcard. "Canberra says her friend Oslo is at about sixty north, eleven east."

This time Little Thunder found it on his own. Up above the equator, a little to the right of Greenwich. "Oslo. Northern Hemisphere. It must be cold there right now."

"Very cold," said Spike.

That afternoon they wrote back to Canberra with a puzzle of their own: coordinates for the farm, and an invitation for tea.