Customer Reviews

Exploration and Conquest: The Americas After Columbus: 1500-1620 (The American Story)

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

 

 

Outstanding description of explorers to the new world after Columbus. Puts the voyages and their countries motives into perspective with clear and concise chrolological account. Highly recommended for the 4th grade explorers unit, and from the 3rd grade through the 7th grade. An excellent historical book and contains good color illustrations. I would recommend it to students from the 3rd grade through the 7th grade, and wish to include a recommendation for teachers, as well.

This text is lengthier than the Constitution book. I believe it can still be easily read and discussed in two class periods. The text can be easily separated between the Conquistadors and other French & English explorers. This book covers quite a few explorers so, a graphic organizer that lists the names of the men would be helpful for students to keep information during the story.

This book not only has great pictures but also has a lot of historical information in it. We have been reading a few pages each day as part of our year of American history studies. There is just too much information to read more than a few pages per day. My kids (7 & 4) love the illustrations!

With my 5th, 3rd, and 1st grade children, we have been studying the explorers in the first part of our foray into American history. We had already covered all of the major explorers over multiple days. I used this book as something of a review at the end of the unit. For that purpose, it served wonderfully.

Major explorers covered are Columbus, Magellan, Cortes, Pizzaro, de Soto, Coronado, Verrazano, Cartier, Drake, Raleigh Hudson. Topics covered include the conquistadores, the Lost Colony, Jamestown, relations with Native Americans, and the slave trade. There are only 41 pages in the main text, so obviously nothing is covered very in-depth. So, this is best seen as an overview. There is also a table of dates, names of other explorers, native american contributions to the world (food, medicines, etc), and other interesting information over several pages at the end of the main text.

The reading level of this book is probably middle-school level. My 9-year-old son reads on a high-school level and enjoys non-fiction. He rated this book 4 stars. With all of the pictures, this is appropriate for a read-aloud in the elementary years, especially if the children have already been exposed to information about the explorers. The language in this book

The author definitely takes the viewpoint that the Native Americans were by and large treated poorly and wrongly by the explorers, but she does frame the context well to make the reader understand why. Catholics could be bothered by some references to attempts to force the Native Americans to convert to Catholocism. Examples: "Large expeditions of soldiers, called conquistadores, were sent out to claim land and riches for the king and the Church of Spain. With them went priests who tried to force the native people to accept the Catholic faith. However, these people had their own strong beliefs and often had no idea what the Spanish were trying to teach them."

This book is very well-written, with wonderfully rich language. It has beautiful illustrations. Overall, it is a very engaging overview of the explorers. I would highly recommend it to those who have middle school children studying the explorers, and for elementary students as well if the parent is willing to read it with the child. This is an outstanding book.

I personally love this history book, however, my five-year-old daughter does not! It is a bit wordy for young children and they may not understand the illustrations.