John Cabot (Exp-New) (Explorers of the New Worlds) [Library Binding]

Charles J. Shields (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 4-8-These volumes follow a winning formula: accessible text, abundant and diverse illustrative material, and sidebars that distill the main ideas of each chapter. While nearly a century separates these men, their stories contain interesting similarities. Both were obsessed with searching North America for a long-rumored waterway to the Orient; both cultivated the financial support of heads of state from countries other than their own, creating controversy for themselves and compromising their ability to afford successive ventures; and both eventually set out on voyages from which they never returned. Since little is known of the explorers' youth and formative years, the authors concentrate on their bold expeditions, the grueling details of their lives at sea, and their ultimate role in charting a continent that was mysterious and virtually unknown to Europeans. Saffer offers a colorful portrayal of Hudson as a shrewd and headstrong adventurer who repeatedly ignored the contractual orders of his benefactors and set sail wherever his whims took him. The chapter detailing Hudson's 1609 voyage to present-day Staten Island and New Jersey, diverting up the river that would bear his name, is particularly lively. Shields extols Cabot's entrepreneurial skills and credits him with bringing into focus the topography of the land. Both authors succeed in describing the political, social, and religious intrigue that swirled around their subjects and constantly affected their lives. These books will find eager audiences among report writers and browsers looking for high adventure.
William McLoughlin, Brookside School, Worthington, OH
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 8 and up
  
• Library Binding: 64 pages
• Publisher: Chelsea House Publications (December 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0791064387
• ISBN-13: 978-0791064382
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.7 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #766,691 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Charles J. Shields was born in Chester, Pennsylvania on the Delaware River but raised in Park Forest, Illinois, a community for veterans and their families, an experiment in post-war planning described and critiqued in William H. Whyte's The Organization Man. Shields later attended the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, where he received degrees in English and American history.

Shields published his first biography for adults in 2006, and Mockingbird: A Portrait of Harper Lee went on to became a New York Times bestseller. "This biography will not disappoint those who loved the novel and the feisty, independent, fiercely loyal Scout, in whom Harper Lee put so much of herself," wrote Garrison Keillor in the New York Times Sunday Book Review. "As readable, convincing, and engrossing as Lee's literary wonder," said the Orlando Sentinel.

Two years later, Shields followed-up his biography of Lee with a young adult version: I Am Scout: The Biography of Harper Lee, which received awards from American Library Association Best Books for Young Adults; Bank Street Best Children's Book of the Year; Arizona Grand Canyon Young Readers Master List.

In 2009, with fellow biographers Nigel Hamilton, James McGrath Morris, and Debby Applegate, Shields co-founded Biographers International Organization (BIO), a non-profit organization founded to promote the art and craft of biography, and to further the professional interests of its practitioners. As of July 2011, BIO has members in 43 American states and 10 nations, including Australia, India, Kenya, and the Netherlands.

Shields is also associate director of the Great Lives Lecture Series at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Virginia which brings prominent biographers and historians to campus. In November 2011, Shields published the first biography of Kurt Vonnegut, And So It Goes: Kurt Vonnegut, A Life.