Drawing on, and quoting short passages from, original sources, Ray retraces the early life of renowned naturalist John Wesley Powell—highlighting his 1869 venture through the Grand Canyon and the follow-up expedition of 1871. She only actually shows his disability (incurred early in a heroic Civil War career) in the final picture, but repeated mentions make it a recurring theme of the spare, well-organized narrative; being one-handed doesn’t seem to have slowed him down at all, though once a rope-less colleague had to help him up a cliff by lowering a pair of trousers. With a palette of warm reds and browns, Ray creates slightly soft-focus illustrations that follow Powell from youth to maturity, and capture the scale and rugged beauty of the western landscape. Rounded off with a look at Powell’s distinguished later career, as well as a back matter that includes an author’s note, chronology and a substantial reading list, this follows Ray’s Flower Hunter: William Bartram, America’s First Naturalist (2004) in raising the profile of one of our country’s important but lesser-known explorers. (Picture book/biography. 8-10)
