Hernan Cortes

Children's Literature

Any child who has an adventurous streak will immediately be mesmerized by the true story of this Spanish explorer. Famous for conquering the Aztec Empire, Cortes also explored the western coast of Mexico and discovered Baja California. The book is a refreshing change from the overly wordy, jam-packed-with-almost-too-much-information resource books of this nature. The text is simply written and presented, along with numerous illustrations, photographs and maps. The final three pages contain a list of important dates, a glossary of words that are presented in bold throughout the book and groups of related printed material and Web-sites for further research. This series, "Discover the Life of an Explorer," profiles some of the world's most famous early explorers, following their exciting adventures into unknown territory looking for riches and land to claim as their own. It also includes books about Francisco Coronado, Sir Francis Drake and Henry Hudson. The books would be well used in an elementary school library as biographies or as social studies resources. The author has written 24 books and numerous newspaper and magazine articles, short stories, anthologies, plays and poetry. She lives in Helena, Montana. 2003, Rourke Publishing LLC,
— Cindy Carolan