Rita Anne Thompson, age 11, of Lebanon, Ky., for her question:

Is an atlas different from an encyclopedia?

An atlas, as you now know from your gift book, is a collection of maps. It has an index of places and some atlases give other information such as population. There are also atlases of the stars and nature atlases which show where certain plants grow and where certain creatures live.

An encyclopedia may also contain an atlas and will certainly contain many maps. But it contains many other things besides. Its list of items and articles covers almost every subject which you are likely to meet.