Readers looking to learn about Marco Polo will do better looking elsewhere.
As a scribe works, a child visits him, curious to hear the stories he has transcribed about Marco Polo.
Legendary traveler and explorer Marco Polo left his home in Venice, Italy, at the age of 17 only to return 27 years later, aged 44. Following his return he was captured and spent a year in prison due to his participation in the battles between Venice and Genoa. It was during this time that he dictated his memoirs to a fellow prisoner and scribe. Many have doubted the veracity and accuracy of his adventures. In this account Rosen sidesteps the debate by focusing more on impressions and vignettes than on actual stories. He does this in the form of a conversation that takes place between a visiting child and a scribe. Unfortunately, the device feels contrived and unconvincing, and the few facts learned will leave readers with more questions than answers. Using a combination of acrylic paint and airbrushing, Pritelli’s textured and evocative artwork is a visual delight. At times, though, there seems to be a disconnect between art and text. For example, a beautiful pastoral scene of horses in a meadow with a snow-capped mountain in the background bears no connection with anything in the text, which describes “fountains of black oil spewing from the ground!” The child’s dialogue is printed in a thin, sans serif type that occasionally blends into the backgrounds.
Readers looking to learn about Marco Polo will do better looking elsewhere. (map, foreword, notes) (Informational picture book. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-56846-290-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Creative Editions/Creative Company
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2016
This slim volume brings to you-are-there life a historical episode often relegated to a sidebar.
It might be said that the American Revolution began with the Boston Tea Party on December 16, 1773.
Crowds of protestors filled Boston’s Old South Church. “Boston Harbor a teapot tonight!” someone yelled. And sure enough, that evening, thousands of pounds of tea from three merchant ships were dumped into the harbor. A wide range of Boston society—well-known citizens, carpenters, printers, blacksmiths and shipwrights, young and old—dressed up to resemble Mohawk Indians, their faces smeared with grease and lampblack or soot, turned out to protest the British government’s tyranny. As always, Freedman demonstrates his skill at telling the story behind the facts, weaving a lively narrative out of the details and voices that shaped one episode of history. Drawing on primary resources as well as scholarly works, he smoothly melds quotations from eyewitnesses and other sources into a lively and engaging narrative. The volume has been lovingly designed, and Malone’s memorable watercolor illustrations are beautifully wrought, adding much to the telling. The Boston Tea Party is often just one of several names and events that students have to memorize in school; here’s a chance to read about it as an exciting story.
This slim volume brings to you-are-there life a historical episode often relegated to a sidebar. (afterword, bibliographic essay, note on tea, timeline, sources, index) (Nonfiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-8234-2266-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: April 17, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2012
Reluctant historians may find Virgil's "ghostory" appealing.
History is more haunted than readers may think.
Disney might have some believing that castles are clean, pink and full of unicorn tapestries. But Virgil Dante, youngest Master Ghostorian in London, is here to disabuse readers of that notion, ostensibly with the help of his raven, Thor, and a passel of ghosts. They tour history with the assistance of a cursed pocket watch and look in on castles, dungeons, palaces and graveyards. Here and there, they learn a thing or two from a “real” ghost from the locale and time period they are visiting. More often, Virgil just lectures in a colloquial narrative voice or offers maps, lists and diagrams of horrible places and things in world history. The usual suspects get the eye: The Tower of London and the Bastille figure prominently, but there are also lesser-known nests of nastiness like Himeji Castle in Japan and Castle Neuschwanstein in Bavaria. Everett and Scott-Waters have put together an instructive, amusing-enough gross-and-horrible history title. However, it feels a bit scattered, and the ghosts are few and far between. Abundant black-and-white illustrations are grisly and spooky enough to hold interest.
Reluctant historians may find Virgil's "ghostory" appealing. (timeline, maps, resources) (Nonfiction. 8-12)Pub Date: July 17, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-8050-8971-4
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Christy Ottaviano/Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: April 17, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2012
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