Lewis and Clark: Explorers of the American West [Paperback]

Steven Kroll (Author), Richard Williams (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1996 | Age Level: 7 and up | Grade Level: 2 and up

The story of their two-and-a-half-year expedition.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 2-5-An attractive picture-book presentation of the highlights of Lewis and Clark's exploratory expedition through the territory acquired in the Louisiana Purchase. The text reads like a fictional adventure story, but sticks to the facts as it summarizes the major events of the dangerous journey. Many details are supplied through the colorful, realistic paintings: the physical landscape, clothing, tools and weapons, and differences in appearance and customs among Native American cultures. This is an excellent read-aloud resource to motivate young students to find out more about the opening up and settlement of the western U.S. Older students might use this book as an overview before moving on to Rhoda Blumberg's The Incredible Journey of Lewis and Clark (Lothrop, 1987).
Eunice Weech, M.L. King Elementary School, Urbana, IL
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

Ages 6-10. This picture book of Lewis and Clark's famous journey begins with the Louisiana Purchase and goes on to introduce the members of the "corps of discovery," their aims, transportation, supplies, discoveries, and the many hardships they faced as they made their way across the continent and back. The handsome full-page and double-page illustrations offer lively and sometimes dramatic views of the places and events described. Spreads with separate illustrations on facing pages are somewhat less effective, since the borderless pictures meet in the middle, but the oil paintings themselves are well conceived, well composed, and appealing. An excellent introduction to an important event in American history. Carolyn Phelan --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 7 and up
  
• Paperback: 32 pages
• Publisher: Holiday House (October 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0823412733
• ISBN-13: 978-0823412730
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 9.8 x 0.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #776,747 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #80 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Children's Books > History & Historical Fiction > Exploration & Discovery

More About the Author

Steven Kroll is the author of many beloved picture books for children, including "Pooch on the Loose: A Christmas Adventure", illustrated by Michael Garland; "The Biggest Pumpkin Ever", illustrated by Jeni Bassett; and "A Tale of Two Dogs", illustrated by Mike Reed. He lives with his wife in New York City and Bucks County, Pennsylvania.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful pictures. Great Action. Good for Children, October 28, 2004

By 

Sissalou "sissalou" (SAINT CLAIR, MI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lewis and Clark: Explorers of the American West (Paperback)

I highly recommend this book as one of the better children's books about the Lewis and Clark Expedition--solely for its wonderfully beautiful and active pictures.

I acknowledge and appreciate the astute scholar in another review who corrected the author about an error (quite important, actually), but even so, Kroll's choice of story and great pictures outweigh the regrettable error. The story for children comes across very well regardless. The target audience children won't know the difference and it does not detract from the overall story. They will still gain a very good understanding about the mission and hardships Lewis and Clark and their army detachment overcame. Wonderful book.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars So-so adaptation of history, October 23, 2007

By 

amanooensis (Flyover Country) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Lewis and Clark: Explorers of the American West (Paperback)

In adapting and condensing a sprawling real-life adventure for a juvenile audience, this book unfortunately seems to take much of the excitement out of the story. One wonders if the text and illustrations might actually work okay by themselves -- just not in the same book together.

The illustrations appear to be oil paintings, using a fairly consistent (monotonous) range of muted earth tones. Most are done in square format and printed "full bleed," one per page (no margins). As a result, most times that you look at two facing pages, you are fooled into thinking that you're looking at two parts of a single wide illustration. They just blend into each other, and generally don't seem to capture much drama.

If the paintings had more visual variety, or clung more closely to the text, that might not happen. But as it is, the two elements do not seem to hang together. The text is detailed enough to be interesting to an older (3rd grade or higher) student, but the simplistic picture-book approach might make it less appealing to such kids. Meanwhile, all those details will be overwhelming (or boring) to a younger reader.

Another review here mentions some concerns about factual accuracy, regarding one very small part of the expedition's long itinerary. Frankly, I would not get so excited over that, considering the audience. I don't think any children will be grabbing this volume and running off to use it as a guidebook in retracing the steps of Lewis and Clark.

Of more concern is whether such details (like specific choices of routes, or names of valleys and rivers and whatnot) have any place at all, in a book with such a simplistic and distracting visual approach. Or, instead, whether the pictures ought to be smaller and more numerous, so that they illustrate all the many episodes of this adventure more faithfully.

We got this as part of Amazon's 3-for-4 promotion, in hopes of getting a fact-based story, at the elementary school level, at a bargain price. Well, I think one might be better off spending more money and choosing from one of the zillions of other books on this topic. I haven't looked yet, but I can't help thinking that somebody, somewhere must have done this better.

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful, September 14, 2011

By 

M. Heiss (USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Lewis and Clark: Explorers of the American West (Paperback)

The sheer beauty of these illustrations will knock your socks off. It is hard to capture the bravery, excitement, and fear of the expedition members in so short a book; Steven Kroll does a fine job. The pictures alone make this a book worth having -- large, memorable illustrations to capture the imagination of your little adventurer.