David Inglis, age 13, of Merritt, British Columbia, Canada, for his question:

Where on the map is Sanda Island?

Most maps do not show little Sanda Island    but you will find it marked right there in your gift World Book Atlas. Turn to the map of Scotland on page 13 and notice how many small islands swarm around the ragged shores. You won't find Sanda among the blustery Orkney Islands off the north coast    nor among the Outer Hebrides Islands, strewn far into the North Atlantic. But you are headed in the right direction if you continue southward among the Inner Hebrides Islands off Scotland's west coast.

At last you come to the North Channel that separates Scotland from the Northeast coast of Ireland. This northern channel of the Irish Sea pinches to a width of about 14 miles. Here you turn eastward and curve around a finger of Scotland, called Kintyre. Tiny Sanda Island is a few miles from its southeastern shore. Amore direct route is from Glasgow in the busy heart of Scotland via an inland waterway to the Firth of Clyde. But that way you miss all those other interesting islands of Scotland.