Questions and Answers About Explorers - Softcover

Chris Maynard is an editor and writer for several children's magazines.

Grade 2-4-Despite the fact that this book has colorful pictures and a simple text, it is too short on substance to merit purchase. Each question, e.g., "Who explored the biggest ocean?," "What was the Silk Route?," is dealt with in a brief paragraph or two, and the remainder of the double-page spread is devoted to the illustration and miscellaneous trivia on the general subject. Many answers are so abridged as to defy logic: the illustrated half-page answer to "How did sailors measure their speed?" explains that they devised the method of using a block of wood thrown into the water behind the ship. "A line attached to the log unreeled as the ship moved," yet, the result of this process-that it was the "knots" in this line that came to denote mariner speed-is never mentioned. Informational tidbits are included in a scattershot fashion. Students will find much of the same material in Peter Ryan's better organized Explorers and Mapmakers (Lodestar, 1990) or Dennis Fradin's Explorers (Childrens, 1984). Advanced readers or those researching specific events or people will find no shortage of titles with greater detail.
Anita Palladino, Finkelstein Memorial Library, Spring Valley, NY
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.