Customer Reviews

Columbus

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Since I've been planning a 3rd grade curriculum for my daughter, I've been reading lots of children's books about Christopher Columbus. So I can safely say that this is definitely one of the most interesting, absorbing books I've read. Even I found it very interesting to read it, and get pulled into his story as if it was a novel. It is historically accurate from Columbus' point of view; some may argue that it is not fair to the Indians, but I disagree. It is a great idea to take this book and read it and then discuss the moral implications of Columbus' actions and the way that they viewed the Indians.

Regardless, the book is extremely interesting, has awesome pictures to go along with the enthralling story, and is a wonderful, historical book. My only complaint against it is that the end gets very depressing as it details how Columbus was treated at the end of his life... but that IS what happened, so it's not really a complaint, just a comment on the fact that it's, again, something to talk about. REALLY, REALLY great book for homeschooling or for the parent that likes to increase their child's knowledge of history!

From a Catholic or Christian parent, there is nothing to be contrary to the faith as well. I felt it was neutral if not positive towards the faith of the persons in the story. Perhaps for those not Christian it would annoy them to see the occasional comments about Columbus praising God or thanking God, etc... but to be fair, this is exactly how they thought in the time and so it really DOES belong in the story, regardless of what your beliefs are today. So a heads up to both Christian parent and not as to the content of the book.

This book was used with my daughter's American History curriculum. It held her interest and provided her with more than just date recall. I will use it again with my other child.

The D'Aulaires' give the child (and adult reader) a deep understanding of Columbus from the time of his youth through his old age. The details, like what the cover illustration means, draw children in and transforms Columbus from a name of a holiday to a flesh-and-blood man of discovery. If an era ever needed heroes of inspiration for young children, ours is it and the D'Aulaires' deliver.

We are a homeschool family and we used this book for a unit we studied about Columbus. It was a good length, easy to understand, and the information was appropriate for a first grader. The art was a little strange, not very realistic for a history lesson, but we were able to find other things online to supplement that. It's great informative reading to be used as a read-aloud.

This book is fine. It covers all four voyages and gets into Columbus's personality. Read aloud to younger kids and let the big kids (3rd grade?) handle it on their own.

I am a homeschooling parent who has long seen the D'Aulaire's recommended from every corner. The books are expensive, though, so we purchased only a couple of them. Indeed, the Columbus is fun and wonderfully illustrated. The story is very complete too. We enjoyed it a lot, how it went beyond just the three ships, etc. I especially liked the bits about Columbus' family he included, and the Spanish monks.

But I am not sure if it lives up to the expectations I had from seeing it everywhere.

The main thing I was surprised to see was that D'Aulaire perpetuates the flat-earth myth. It is now a well known fact that the "Columbus proved the world was round" doctrine is wrong and misleading. So I am surprised to see that while D'Aulaire gave a head nod to the Portuguese mapmakers and how they knew the world was round, the book still comes off basically supporting the traditional flat earth version of the story. In reality, the Catholics had been teaching this through Aquinas (on page ONE of the Summa) and even as far back as the Venerable Bede in the 600s. Perhaps not every uneducated person knew, but the Catholic educated did, and there was no conspiracy. Everyone knew.

In fact, Spanish advisers to King Ferdinand were skeptical primarily because they thought the circumference was much longer (the trip was going to be a lot bigger) than Columbus had calculated. Turns out they were right! Not, as D'Aulaire suggests, because they thought Columbus' ships wouldn't be able to make it "uphill" as he circled around. This is NOT revisionist theory! The very popular kids' book, "The Librarian Who Measured the Earth" by Kathryn Lasky does a great job explaining this.

Another thing I was surprised to find out was that many of the pages had a lot of text per page and rather high vocabulary. From some of the classical curricula we looked at which recommended this book for the youngest ages, it was definitely too hard for my kindergartner and mildly challenging for my first grader as well, who both are independent readers and love being read to. My second and third graders got much more out of it because they knew most of the terms and geographical locations mentioned... and there were a lot!

I read it a second time with my littlest ones about six months later, which definitely helped. Obviously you have to reread to kids. But we still had to go slowly with the amount of story involved--it took us a week to really digest it carefully. This isn't a negative thing per se, just something to be aware of. The DK Columbus version for young readers was intelligent and readable in just one sitting, which my first grader appreciated and wanted to read over and over again. So he picked up more details from that book, which was only 3.99, than this one.

In conclusion, the positive aspects of this book make it worth reading, and probably purchasing. But considering the price and historical oversight, it may just be better to rent from the library. I think it appeals more to the parent than the child. At least for K-1.