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Polar Adventures |
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| Author: |
Catherine Nichols |
 Book Review
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| Format: |
Hardcover |
| ISBN: |
0516229206 |
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| Availability: |
Ships within 2-3 days. |
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Sea of Trolls |
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| Author: |
Nancy Farmer |
Book Review
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| Format: |
Textbook Hardcover |
| ISBN: |
0689867441 |
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Book Review
Three time Newbery honor author Nancy Farmer's epic fantasy, The Sea of Trolls, is gigantic in every way. There are big Vikings and bigger trolls. There are big themes--hope, despair, life and death. At a substantial 450+ pages, the sheer size of this hefty tome is impressive. But, like all of Farmer's fine work, the large scale has room for enormous quantities of heart and humor. At the center of this massive adventure is a small Saxon boy named Jack, who's never been much good at anything until the Bard of his medieval village makes him an apprentice. Then, just as Jack is learning to tap into and control his power, he is kidnapped (along with his little sister, Lucy) and taken to the court of King Ivar the Boneless and his half troll queen Frith. When one of Jack's amateur spells causes the evil queen's beautiful hair to... |
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Polar Adventures |
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| Author: |
Catherine Nichols |
Book Review
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| Format: |
Paperback |
| ISBN: |
0516246062 |
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| Availability: |
Ships within 2-3 days. |
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Anacaona, Golden Flower, Haiti, 1490 |
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| Author: |
Edwidge Danticat |
Book Review
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| Format: |
Hardcover |
| ISBN: |
0439499062 |
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From Booklist
Gr. 5-8. In her second novel for young people, part of the Royal Diaries series, Danticat writes a gripping story that shows European invasion from a native Caribbean viewpoint. In fifteenth-century Haiti, Anacaona is part of a royal lineage that rules the Taino people. After her coming-of-age ceremony, she marries a neighboring chief and learns battle techniques to defend against warring tribes. Then "pale men" arrive from Europe. Although Anacaona's people win a vicious battle against the Spanish explorers, children who read the epilogue will learn about the ultimate devastation that Europeans brought to the island worlds. The diary format raises several issues. A preface acknowledges that Anacaona, whose society had no written language, wouldn't have kept a diary. Also, the text is filled with long, purposeful... |
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Encounter |
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| Author: |
Jane Yolen |
Book Review
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| Format: |
Paperback |
| ISBN: |
015201389X |
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From Publishers Weekly
PW's starred review described this "stirring" book as a look at the dark underside of Christopher Columbus's adventure. "The message is blunt but the language in which it is couched is vintage Yolen, lyrical and impassioned. Shannon's visionary style is an ideal complement." Also available in a Spanish-language edition, Encuentro ($6, -201342-3). Ages 6-12. Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From School Library Journal
Grade 2 - 5-- Readers weary of materials celebrating Columbus and his voyages will be refreshed and intrigued by this thought-provoking picture book. The imaginative story examines the first meeting between Columbus and the indigenous peoples of San Salvador (the Taino) through the eyes of a young native boy. The unnamed narrator has been warned... |
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In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex |
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| Author: |
Nathaniel Philbrick |
Book Review
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| Format: |
Paperback |
| ISBN: |
0141001828 |
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Book Review
The appeal of Dava Sobel's Longitude was, in part, that it illuminated a little-known piece of history through a series of captivating incidents and engaging personalities. Nathaniel Philbrick's In the Heart of the Sea is certainly cast from the same mold, examining the 19th-century Pacific whaling industry through the arc of the sinking of the whaleship Essex by a boisterous sperm whale. The story that inspired Herman Melville's classic Moby-Dick has a lot going for it--derring-do, cannibalism, rescue--and Philbrick proves an amiable and well-informed narrator, providing both context and detail. We learn about the importance and mechanics of blubber production--a vital source of oil--and we get the nuts and bolts of harpooning and life aboard whalers. We are spared neither the nitty-gritty of open boats nor the sucking of... |
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So You Want to Be an Explorer |
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| Author: |
Judith St. George |
Book Review
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| Format: |
Hardcover |
| ISBN: |
0399238689 |
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From School Library Journal
Grade 1-4–Another offering from the creative team that brought readers So You Want to Be President? (2000) and So You Want to Be an Inventor? (2002, both Philomel). The artist frames the text with a wordless depiction of a young boy trying on different hats in his room filled with a variety of artifacts. The text then seems to address the daydreaming child directly as he envisions himself setting sail for adventure. Most spreads describe two or more explorers, but only one is depicted. Small's masterful artwork, done in ink, watercolor, and pastel chalk, is full of humorous details. The explorers are primarily European and American, but cover a wide-ranging time period, from Pytheas and Alexander the Great to the present day. A short paragraph describes their claim to fame. The book is intended to... |
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The Last Gentleman Adventurer: Coming of Age in the Arctic |
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| Author: |
Edward Beauclerk Maurice |
Book Review
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| Format: |
Hardcover |
| ISBN: |
0618517510 |
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From Publishers Weekly
Maurice was a 16-year-old boy from a struggling British family when a missionary from the Canadian Arctic paid a visit to his boarding school in 1930. Impressed by an accompanying film about life in the frozen territories, Maurice immediately sought employment as an apprentice with the Hudson's Bay Company and was sent to a remote trading post, where news from the outside world was often limited to a short weekly radio broadcast. He was so young, the local Inuit tribe nicknamed him "The Boy," but, as revealed over the course of this charming memoir, he was gradually able to win their trust and admiration. Eventually placed in charge of his own post, Maurice—having already learned the Inuit language—became increasingly involved in the daily lives of the local tribe members. His accounts of their... |
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Journey to the River Sea |
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| Author: |
Eva Ibbotson |
Book Review
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| Format: |
Paperback |
| ISBN: |
0142501840 |
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Book Review
Sent in 1910 to live with distant relatives who own a rubber plantation along the Amazon River, English orphan Maia is excited. She believes she is in for brightly colored macaws, enormous butterflies, and "curtains of sweetly scented orchids trailing from the trees." Her British classmates warn her of man-eating alligators and wild, murderous Indians. Unfortunately, no one cautions Maia about her nasty, xenophobic cousins, who douse the house in bug spray and forbid her from venturing beyond their coiffed compound. Maia, however, is resourceful enough to find herself smack in the middle of more excitement than she ever imagined, from a mysterious "Indian" with an inheritance, to an itinerant actor dreading his impending adolescence, to a remarkable journey down the Amazon in search of the legendary giant sloth.... |
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Christopher Columbus: (Step into Reading Books Series: A Step 3 Book) |
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| Author: |
Stephen Krensky |
Book Review
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| Format: |
Paperback |
| ISBN: |
0679803696 |
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From School Library Journal
Grade 1-3-- Describing Columbus's first voyage, Krensky writes in the present tense and asks a number of questions, such as "What if the wind stops blowing?" to make readers aware of the reasons for the sailors' fears and of Columbus's courage in attempting the trip. He includes some facts about the crew and shipboard life. The writing is clear and objective, with no fictionalization. It is less choppy than many beginning readers, but is easy enough for the intended audience. Green's watercolor illustrations include maps showing the world of 1492 and that of today. Unfortunately some of the colors are poorly reproduced, so that the Indians and several of the Spaniards appear to have blue hair. Vicki Liestman's Columbus Day (Carolrhoda, 1991) contains more information about the reasons for the voyage and the... |
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Lewis and Clark and Me: A Dog's Tale |
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| Author: |
Laurie Myers |
Book Review
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| Format: |
Hardcover |
| ISBN: |
0805063684 |
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From Publishers Weekly
Meriwether Lewis's dog Seaman serves as narrator for a fictionalized account of Lewis and William Clark's 1803-1806 journey from St. Louis to the Pacific Ocean in Lewis and Clark and Me: A Dog's Tale by Laurie Myers, illus. by Michael Dooling. Excerpts from Lewis's journals close each chapter, supplying the historical basis for the dog's adventures. Handsome silhouettes ornament the chapter openers, while numerous oil paintings enliven the pages. Ages 8-12.Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From School Library Journal
Grade 3-6-Seaman, a highly intelligent and sensitive dog that accompanied the Corps of Discovery, introduces youngsters to this exciting epic of United States history. The chapters are based on accounts in Lewis's journals, from which a... |
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Lewis and Clark: A Prairie Dog for the President (Step into Reading Series) |
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| Author: |
Shirley-Raye Raye Redmond |
Book Review
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| Format: |
Paperback |
| ISBN: |
0375811206 |
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From Booklist
Gr. 1-3. The history is handled with a light touch in this Step into Reading title about the American West, and Manders' colorful cartoon-style art is a perfect match for the storytelling. President Jefferson asks Lewis and Clark to go west, and "make maps, and explore rivers . . . collect plants and draw wild animals . . . send presents." Comic scenes show the explorers trying to catch buffalo and grizzly bears to send to the president, but they settle on the cute, little, wild dog, which scouts take back to Jefferson together with a huge load of plants, skins, and animals. Other than Sacagawea, who is a big help ("she talked and traded with the Indians they met on the way"), there's no mention of the native peoples the explorers encountered, but this lively history will make new readers want to know more. Hazel... |
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