Book review: Telling Stories with Maps: Lessons from a lifetime of creating place-based narratives
reviewed by Maggie Tarmey
Carroll, Allen. Telling Stories with Maps: Lessons from a lifetime of creating place-based narratives. Redlands, California: Esri Press, 2025. 226 p. $44.99. LC: 204951472. ISBN: 9781589487970.
When I was offered the opportunity to review Telling Stories with Maps: lessons from a lifetime of creating place-based narratives for the WAML Information Bulletin, I was expecting a book that explored different ways maps can be used in support of storytelling. In my role as an academic librarian working with maps, I often consult with researchers interested in incorporating maps into their research projects to tell a more complete story of whatever it is they research (from urban planning, to public health, to everything in between). Reading this book, I was hoping to perhaps encounter some novel ideas that I could incorporate into my teaching and research support. However, what I encountered was a far different book.
While not mentioned in the title nor in the book’s description on the back cover, this is fundamentally a book about how to optimally and most effectively use Esri’s ArcGIS StoryMaps platform. Over eight chapters, dozens of ArcGIS StoryMaps are referenced, screenshotted, and linked out to as examples of strong storytelling. While some chapters are more technical than others, chapter eight is almost entirely dedicated to specific tips and tricks for using the platform, complete with screenshots of the editing interface (that I fear will quickly become outdated and unhelpful).
Scattered throughout all chapters of the book, encompassing what I would consider to be roughly one third of the text, are Carroll’s personal memoirs encompassing his childhood as a map fan, to his long career at the National Geographic Society, to his current career on the ArcGIS StoryMaps team at Esri. While there are a handful of interesting anecdotes shared, many (?) were arduous to read through and felt more suited for a chapter in books on the histories of these two organizations rather than a book on cartographic storytelling. One such example was chapter five’s long and incredibly detailed journey through the evolution of digital storytelling platforms that Carroll worked on at the National Geographic Society and Esri, with a feature by feature breakdown.
The sections of the book which focus on storytelling broadly are okay, but are not novel and the advice provided can easily be learned from other publications. For example, in chapter one (“Why Stories Matter”), Carroll provides the reader with a list of fifteen one-word story types divided into five categories. One such story type is “learn,” (in the category “educate”) described only as “ArcGIS StoryMaps empowers students to create their own stories and exposes them to the insights of the geographic approach” (p. 17). I do not understand how this is a type of story, or advice about the act of storytelling.
Other storytelling tips and advice include considering who, what, where, when, why, and how. The book also encourages the reader to consider having a hook for their story, a hero or other character to follow, keeping it short and sweet (ArcGIS StoryMaps keep readers engaged for an average of six minutes, as opposed to the average of 30 seconds spent on a typical web page), and adding a call to action. These are all tips you could find in books on storytelling or screenwriting.
Chapter three (“Maps and Minds”) is a brief foray into the neuroscience and psychology of spatial cognition and storytelling. The debunked left brain/right brain theory by Roger W. Sperry is described, acknowledged as debunked, and yet held as something still worth considering. This chapter feels particularly egregious and irrelevant to the text as a whole. It is so broad and surface-level that it fails to have an appropriate audience.
One highlight is the “exemplary stories” that appear in two-page full color spreads between chapters. Each “exemplary story” is a high-quality ArcGIS StoryMap as selected by the author. There is a variety of ArcGIS StoryMaps, each with screenshots and a short note on the “story behind the story” and “why it’s special.” The stories are varied in content and style, and they showcase the different ways information can be presented and shared in an ArcGIS StoryMap. However, these are ultimately printed screenshots of web-based, multimedia projects. All ArcGIS StoryMaps referenced in the book can be accessed at go.esri.com/telling-stories-site, which begs the question as to why a physical book was needed to promote this fully digital multimedia product.
It is important to note that the book repeatedly references how ArcGIS StoryMaps are hosted by Esri on ArcGIS Online (a cloud service) and that “authors needn’t worry about maintaining servers and other infrastructure…stories benefit from frequent product updates” (p. 10). However, Esri Story Maps, the predecessor to ArcGIS StoryMaps, is being retired in 2026. Not only will users not be able to update these older stories, but they will not be accessible or viewable at their existing links. ArcGIS StoryMaps only launched in 2019, so this encompasses all stories made between the Esri Story Maps launch in 2012 until 2019. The fact that there are stories that will become technologically obsolete and inaccessible after as little as seven years does mean that authors will need to consider maintaining and migrating their work manually, even if they don’t have to maintain an actual server. Will ArcGIS StoryMaps exist in five to ten years from now? Or will this entire book become outdated, obsolete, and inaccessible in a short period of time?
This is a puzzling book that tries to do too many things at once and it is unclear who the audience is. If you are a user of ArcGIS StoryMaps, most of the information shared in this book will already be familiar to you. If you are curious about ArcGIS StoryMaps, I struggle to see where this book makes a convincing case for purchasing a license in order to try the product for yourself. It is also not particularly helpful for those like myself and my patrons who are looking for advice on using maps to tell stories in a non-ArcGIS StoryMaps context.
Maggie Tarmey
Librarian for Geography, Maps, and Economics UCLA Library
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