Bound To Stay Bound

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Booklist - 08/01/2014 With the same wit and subtlety readers have come to expect from the Lives of . . . series, Krull manages to provide accurate, entertaining, and relatable capsule biographies of 20 giants of exploration. Included are the expected, such as Columbus and Marco Polo, but also the more obscure, such as Mary Kingsley, who explored the remotest parts of Africa in the nineteenth century, and Matthew Henson, an African American who may have been the first person to reach the North Pole, in 1909. These biographies focus less on the places that these intrepid men and women explored and more on the events and personality traits in their lives that impelled them to become voyagers. Krull’s best move is to celebrate what most history books do not: that the men and women she writes about are real people, with flaws, foibles, and personal oddities. Helped along, as usual, by Hewitt’s kind caricatures, this is another entertaining and resonant group biography. - Copyright 2014 Booklist.

Bulletin for the Center... - 09/01/2014 The latest in Krull’s popular and charming Lives of . . . series offers a promise of dangerous adventure and doesn’t disappoint. Krull makes her way through seventeen chronologically arranged entries, covering explorers from the well known (Columbus, Magellan, James Cook, Sally Ride), to the somewhat familiar (Zheng He, Mary Kingsley, Matthew Henson), to those in need of more kid-lit attention (Richard Francis Burton, Isabella Bird, the father and son Piccards). The entries on Leif Ericson, Henry Hudson, and Burton are notably shorter than the rest, but all include gossipy bits that don’t hit the textbooks and retain the author’s winning tone of confiding secrets that other writers won’t. Thus we find just how cruel Magellan was to his crew, how many wives and children Ibn Battuta left behind on his travels, how shabbily Arctic explorer Robert Peary treated his colleague Henson, and how Kingsley spent the night in the company of bagged body parts. Hewitt’s humorous caricatures, large of head and slight of body, continue to amuse, and the maps included in many entries are a welcome addition. The list for further reading focuses on adult works and will be of limited value to kids who immediately want to find out more. But isn’t that what librarians (and-sigh-Google) are for? EB - Copyright 2014 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois.

School Library Journal - 09/01/2014 Gr 4–6—Krull introduces middle-grade readers to a diverse cast of 17 explorers in this latest offering from her series. A short, two-to five page chapter is devoted to each explorer, incorporating a biographical sketch and a short discussion of the explorer's contributions. The subjects are presented chronologically, beginning in the medieval period with the Norseman Leif Ericson and finishing with the astronaut Sally Ride. Readers learn about these historical figures' adventures while also getting a taste of each explorer's personality and character. Brilliant, full-page caricatures of the explorers in light color introduce each chapter, their oversize heads adding an additional dimension of personality to the narrative. Hewitt's painted maps are splendid, revealing the twisting paths of many adventurers, including Capt. James Cook's winding sea routes and Meriwether Lewis and William Clark's snaking trails. In addition to the famous personages of Christopher Columbus and Ferdinand Magellan, special attention is given to less fabled discoverers, including Mary Kingsley and Isabella Bird. This work is a survey, providing summarized information, so the detail is shallower than volumes specializing on a single explorer or specific expedition, such as Richard Kozar's Lewis & Clark (Chelsea House, 2000). But what the book lacks in detail, it gains in an exceedingly diverse cast of historical figures, thus introducing young readers to the women, Asians, and African Americans who contributed to world discovery. Krull does not sugarcoat the history; the negative impacts of discovery upon native peoples are discussed, such as the violence resulting from Columbus's expeditions. A strong addition to middle-grade nonfiction collections.—Jeffrey Meyer, Mount Pleasant Public Library, IA - Copyright 2014 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.

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