Explorers

Children's Literature

This second "Atlas in the Round" entry introduces explorers from many eras and gives enough information, supported by an index, to help report-writers round up information. Its organization is not chronological but instead is topical, featuring a page design of boxes, captioned pictures, maps, diagrams, sidebars and other visually interesting or challenging presentations of information. While many of the usual explorers such as Columbus, Vasco da Gama and Marco Polo are included, there are also less well known to children but equally interesting sections about Mary Kingsley, Ibn Battuta, John Speke, Thor Heyerdahl and Edmund Hillary. For a teacher who wished to assign topics for a study of explorers and their contributions to knowledge of the world, this would be a good summary and introduction from which to distribute investigative topics. There is, of course, a fair amount of geography in this text as well, and it is ably supported by maps on every page. It's a nicely done overview and one that might excite readers to pursue information further in some of the elegantly illustrated short biographies of explores recently published, such as Don Brown's Uncommon Traveler: Mary Kingsley in Africa and James Rumford's beautiful Traveling Man: The Journey of Ibn Battuta, 1325-1354. 2001, Running Press/Ilex, $15.95. Ages 9 to 14. Reviewer: Susan Hepler AGES: 9 10 11 12 13 14