Looking for Marco Polo [Hardcover]

Alan Armstrong (Author), Tim Jessell (Illustrator)

Book Description

Age Level: 8 and up | Grade Level: 3 and up

Newbery Honor–winning author Alan Armstrong’s latest book!

Eleven-year-old Mark's anthropologist father has disappeared in the Gobi desert while tracing Marco Polo’s ancient route from Venice to China. His mother decides they must go to Venice to petition the agency that sent Mark’s father to send out a search party. Anxious about his father and upset about spending Christmas away from home, Mark gets a bad asthma attack in the middle of the night. That’s when Doc Hornaday, an old friend of Mark’s father, makes a house call, along with a massive black Tibetan mastiff called Boss. To distract Mark from his wheezing and to pass the long Venetian night, the Doc starts to spin for Mark the tale of Marco Polo. Doc describes Marco’s travels and the boy finds himself falling under the spell of the story that has transfixed the world for centuries. Marco’s journey bolsters Mark’s courage and whets his appetite for risk and adventure, and for exposure to life in all its immense and fascinating variety.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 5–7—This story within a story brings to life the adventures of the famed 13th-century Venetian explorer. It begins in the modern day with the disappearance of 11-year-old Mark's father, who is tracing Polo's route through the Gobi desert. Mark and his mother travel to Venice to help with the search. While there, Mark has a terrible asthma attack and meets his dad's army friend Dr. Hornaday, who decides to entertain his patient with imaginative stories about Marco Polo. His tales are full of color and excitement; the details, although they are not based on known historical events, are grounded in the author's research on Polo's times and the places he claimed to have seen. The narrative becomes a little confusing: Hornaday's dog can talk to Mark and describes what Polo's homecoming to Venice was like, as passed down through his dog ancestors. The descriptions of the world in the 13th century are fascinating, and the imagined relationship between Kublai Khan and Polo is intriguing, but due to its complicated structure, this isn't a book for reluctant readers. Illustrations are interspersed throughout. The novel is an excellent supplement for those studying the explorer and his world. Extensive chapter notes are included, but there is no map.—Caroline Tesauro, Radford Public Library, VA
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About the Author

Alan Armstrong’s first book, Whittington, was awarded a Newbery Honor in 2006. He lives with his wife, Martha, a painter, in Massachusetts.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 8 and up
  
• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers; First Edition edition (September 22, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0375833218
• ISBN-13: 978-0375833212
• Product Dimensions: 5.9 x 1 x 8.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,661,369 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars It's ok. It's a little slow, October 19, 2009

By 

Lindsey Miller "Lindsey's Library" (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Looking for Marco Polo (Hardcover)

I have mixed feelings about this book. I like the concept well enough, but the execution is a bit dry. It was interesting to learn all of the history surrounding Marco Polo and Venice of that time period, but there wasn't much of a plot to move the story along. I need a little more than a story about a boy, Mark, who doesn't want to be in Venice during Christmas and misses his dad, reluctantly roaming the city to find out more history on Marco Polo. It was certainly a nice history lesson, but as a story overall, it's hard to get through.

[...]

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A winning blend of fact, fiction and fantasy, December 28, 2009

By 

A Customer (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Looking for Marco Polo (Hardcover)

In his award-winning debut novel, WHITTINGTON, Alan Armstrong told the historical story of London mayor Dick Whittington and his cat through the voice of one of that cat's descendants. In LOOKING FOR MARCO POLO, Armstrong again integrates history, fantasy and fiction, this time in the more exotic and evocative setting of Venice.

Eleven-year-old Mark's father is an anthropologist who loves adventure. While on an expedition to trace Marco Polo's route through the Gobi Desert, he disappears suddenly. Mark and his mom, as well as the research institute sponsoring the mission, are pretty sure that he is just accompanying some nomadic herders in search of elusive water. But they're not taking any chances, so they head to Venice --- where Mark's dad's journey began --- to try to get some answers.

While there, Mark has an asthma attack, which brings him in contact with his dad's old friend, Dr. Hornaday. Doc Hornaday helps calm Mark's breathing (and at least some of the fears about his dad) and, most importantly, introduces Mark to his gigantic Tibetan dog, Boss. When all the grownups are asleep, Mark discovers that Boss can talk...and that he's the direct descendant of Marco Polo's own enormous dog. Through a combination of storytelling, dreams and fantasy, Doc Hornaday and Boss help bring the stories of tricky, adventurous Marco Polo --- and the history of their beloved city of Venice --- to life.

Readers will enjoy exploring the alleys and canals of Venice with Mark and his new friends. Armstrong brings the fascinating city vividly to life and illustrates the changes that have befallen the city in the centuries between Marco Polo's times and our own. Careful readers will also appreciate the parallels between Mark's story and that of his historical predecessor, and they (like Mark himself) may even be inspired by history to take a journey, start an adventure, or just try something new.

Armstrong's novel is meticulously researched as evidenced by his extensive author's note, which clearly delineates the portions of Marco Polo's story that can be gleaned from the adventurer's own writings and other historical accounts and those that are pure imagination. For aspiring historians (or adventurers), Armstrong provides a comprehensive bibliography, and his author's notes make specific suggestions about the best historical accounts for young people.

Although some readers may find the historical vignettes a bit too much like a history lesson dropped into a novel, most will be sufficiently intrigued by Mark's unique situation to find themselves just as drawn into the tales of Marco Polo and Kublai Khan. Tim Jessell's warm and, at times, humorous black-and-white drawings also portray both the historical anecdotes and contemporary Venice in charming detail. LOOKING FOR MARCO POLO is a winning blend of fact, fiction and fantasy that liberates the past from dusty old textbooks and makes it relevant for today's young readers.

--- Reviewed by Norah Piehl

4.0 out of 5 stars Ignites a Child's Passion for Adventure, Exploration and History, March 16, 2011

By 

Jason Golomb (Northern Virginia) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Looking for Marco Polo (Hardcover)

My 7-year-old son really enjoyed this book. He loves stories of adventure and action and this had enough to ignite his imagination and growing passion for history. The action, however, doesn't occur with the characters who physically appear in the book.

Mark and his mother travel from the United States to Venice, Italy to search for clues of their father who's gone missing somewhere along the Silk Road. Mark's father's work took him to some of the same locations that Marco Polo traveled and so while Mark and his mother seek for clues, we are taken on a parallel journey of Mark's father and Marco Polo.

Marco's story is told through eyes of a couple of characters Mark meets during his time in Venice. The first is a doctor and former friend of his father's. The other is the doctor's pet...a big black shaggy dog, just like the Marco had during parts of his travels. Through the stories of these two characters, Mark and the reader are tugged along the broad and widespread tales of Marco Polo - from his beginnings in Venice, though his travels along the Silk Road, and during his time with Kublai Khan in what is now China.

The exposure of Marco Polo and Venice through this story is terrific. My son enjoyed the description of the city and every part of Marco Polo's travels including his return home and his departure. While "Looking for Marco Polo" has some nice illustrations, they certainly don't do the scope and scale of the story justice and I've supplemented the readings with pictures of my own from a recent trip to Italy.

Mark's friends' descriptions of Marco's adventures combine the "facts" around Marco's book, but also includes numerous embellishments and fiction in which the friends 'imagine' what have happened that fill the gaps between stories. As an adult I've found this a little awkward and find myself clarifying to my son what's real and what's not.

For myself, I think of this book as 3 stars. Because my son has enjoyed it so much, I have to bump up the rating considering he's more of the target demographic.