Customer Reviews

Lewis and Clark (In Their Own Words (Scholastic Hardcover))

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We just finished a week long, very intense study of Lewis and Clark. This was the book we used as a textbook. Neither the students nor I could put it down. They begged to read just one more chapter every time. The special education aide who comes in during reading even took the book home with her so she wouldn't miss anything. If you want to get kids excited about history, these "In Their Own Words" books by George Sullivan will do it!

George Sullivan has created a very readable and fairly accurate book here. It suffers from a few errors, one of which is so glaring that it calls into question how thoroughly the book was checked or edited. This obvious error is related to the illustration on page 24, which is purported to be a drawing of William Clark's from his journal. In fact, it is not from the journals and was not drawn by Clark. The only accurate information in the book regarding this illustration is that it is credited to be among the collections of the American Philosophical Society Library. The picture on page 24 was actually drawn by Charles Willson Peale; is APS item 917.3 L58 Misc. VII, and can be viewed on-line at www.amphilsoc.org/library/guides/landc/fisher.jpg.

Other historical inaccuracies include his description of a pirogue (page 29); his claim (on page 35) that roasted beaver tongue was a favorite food (he apparently meant roasted beaver tail, or perhaps buffalo tongue); and, on page 75, where he claims that "In the Shoshone camp, Lewis met Cameahwait, the Shoshone chief." Actually, Cameahwait was among the sixty mounted warriors who came racing out at full speed to protect their people from these unknown strangers.

Still, all in all, it is a fine book and is certainly a better choice for children than the competing book by Kathryn Lasky entitled "The Journal of Augustus Pelletier : The Lewis and Clark Expedition." Lasky's book contains much fiction; is not well and obviously marked as such, and presents a very misleading picture to its youthful readers.

I enjoyed this work and the young folk in my class also enjoy it. It is quite well written and tbe black and white illustrations are quite good and fit well with the text. As one reviewer pointed out, yes, there are a couple of errors in the book but these are really of very little moment, particularly for the level of study this work was ment for. The author has used many quotes from the explorer's journals which makes the book come to life. After reading this work, the young student should be able to have a pretty good understanding of the signifcance of this journey, the hardships, the addition to our knowledge at that time, and the spirit of the overall expediton. Most importantly, it is this sort of work that will encourage the young reader and student of history to go further, read other books on the same subject and branch out even further. Overall, recommend this one highly.