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Library | Call Number | Material Type | Home Location | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clarence Library | G286.M2 M46 2002 | Juvenile Non-Fiction | Biography | Searching... |
| Collins Library | G286.M2 M46 2002 | Juvenile Non-Fiction | Biography | Searching... |
| Elma Library | G286.M2 M46 2002 | Juvenile Non-Fiction | Biography | Searching... |
| Grand Island Library | G286.M2 M46 2002 | Juvenile Non-Fiction | Biography | Searching... |
| North Collins Library | G286.M2 M46 2002 | Juvenile Non-Fiction | Open Shelf | Searching... |
| Frank E. Merriweather Library | G286.M2 M46 2002 | Juvenile Non-Fiction | Biography | Searching... |
| Orchard Park Library | G286.M2 M46 2002 | Juvenile Non-Fiction | Biography | Searching... |
| Anna M. Reinstein Library | G286.M2 M46 2002 | Juvenile Non-Fiction | Biography | Searching... |
| Dudley Branch Library | G286.M2 M46 2002 | Juvenile Non-Fiction | Biography | Searching... |
On Order
Summary
Summary
What must it have been like to be the first to circumnavigate the globe or traverse America from shore to shore? What political, social and financial factors of the day encouraged exploration? What personal dreams and desires drove these fearless men to search the vast unknown waters and lands, to tempt danger time and time again, all in the name of discovery? In Great Explorations, acclaimed authors including recent Laura Ingalls Wilder Award winner Milton Meltzer guide us through the adventures of the indomitable explorers who knew first-hand the joys and sorrows of pioneering.
Author Notes
Historian Milton Meltzer was born in Worcester, Massachusetts in 1915. He attended Columbia University, but had to leave during his senior year because of the Great Depression. He got a job writing for the WPA Federal Theater Project. During World War II, he served as an air traffic controller in the Army Air Corps. After the war, he worked as a writer for CBS radio and in public relations for Pfizer.
In 1956, he published his first book A Pictorial History of the Negro American, which was co-written by Langston Hughes. They also collaborated on Langston Hughes: A Biography, which was published in 1968 and received the Carter G. Woodson award. During his lifetime, he wrote more than 110 books for young people including Brother, Can You Spare a Dime? about the stock market crash that led to the Great Depression; Never to Forget about the Holocaust; and There Comes a Time about the Civil Rights movement. He also addressed such topics as crime, ancient Egypt, the immigrant experience, labor movements, photography, piracy, poverty, racism, and slavery. He wrote numerous biographies including ones on Mary McLeod Bethune, Lydia Maria Child, Dorothea Lange, Margaret Sanger, and Henry David Thoreau. He received the 2000 Regina Medal and the 2001 Laura Ingalls Wilder Award for his body of work and his lasting contribution to children's literature. He died of esophageal cancer on September 19, 2009 at the age of 94.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews 2
Booklist Review
Gr. 5-8. The new Great Explorations series surveys the lives and achievements of famous explorers in slightly oversize volumes that are notable for their simple, pleasing design and clearly written texts. Lewis and Clark discusses the 1804 expedition that set out to explore the American continent. Apart from chapters introducing Meriwether Lewis, William Clark, and Sacagawea, the straightforward narrative follows the explorers down rivers, across the plains, and over the mountains to the Pacific. Supplementing Faber's account are journal quotations that offer firsthand reportage of events, conditions, and reflections about the journey. The last chapter tells what happened to significant members of the expedition and includes information on the Lewis and Clark Trail. Source notes are appended. Ferdinand Magellan demonstrates the enormity of the explorer's achievement in providing "the first hard evidence that the world is round" and covers the extreme hardships of the voyage and the cultural conflict that led to Magellan's death. Meltzer's wry comments make history anything but dry. Recounting Magellan's order to have nothing to do with native women "unless they were baptized as Christians," he notes, "Of course that made every sailor an ardent missionary." The colorful and sometimes quite beautiful illustrations include paintings, drawings, and prints, as well as a few photographs of sites and artifacts. Each volume ends with a time line, a source bibliography, and lists of suggested books and Web sites for further research. --Carolyn Phelan
School Library Journal Review
Gr 6-9-These lively, objective series titles place the lives and exploits of two great explorers into historical perspective and develop an appreciation for the difficulty of their undertakings. Both books have helpful time lines and informative full-color and black-and-white captioned artwork. For both men, the personal risks were enormous; however, they were motivated not by altruism but by national, economic, and personal gain. La Salle was looking for adventure and to add to France's land in America. Readers come away amazed at his perseverance in obtaining financial backing for his journeys. This is a fine selection to place alongside Joan Elizabeth Goodman's Despite All Obstacles (Mikaya, 2001). Meltzer gives a full picture of his subject's accomplishments, the hardships suffered by him and his men, and their inhumane treatment of natives. This book is more thorough than Jim Gallagher's Ferdinand Magellan and the First Voyage around the World (Chelsea, 2000).-Renee Steinberg, Fieldstone Middle School, Montvale, NJ (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.