Customer Reviews

The Usborne Book of Explorers: From Columbus to Armstrong (Famous Lives (E.D.C. Hardcover))

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This is a nice overview of the explorers, aimed at upper elementary school or middle school years. Each topic gets about 1-2 pages of dense text covering basic information with a smattering of illustrations. For example, Christopher Columbus has the basics of his voyage, sidebar illustrations of his three ships, a map of his journeys, a picture of a spanish gold cross and gold shield, a picture of precious spices.

Topics covered include:

Africa (Ibn Battuta, The Green Sea of Darkness, Searching for the River Niger and Timbuktu, The source of the Nile, Exploring the heart of Africa)

Asia (East goes west, Marco Polo, Vasco da Gama and the route to India, The search for the Northeast Passage)

Americas (The Vikings reach America, Christopher Columbus, Cortes, The hunt for the Northwest Passage, The building of New France, Across the continent, Scientists and dreamers)

Australasia (The quest for a southern continent, Into the interior)

Arabia: The forbidden land

Circumnavigation: Around the world

The Poles

Mountains: The roof of the world

Undersea: Exploring the Oceans

Space: Beyond the Earth


This book is a decent overview of the explorers, but perhaps best suited to the middle school crowd with the dense text. At the same time, we also used Scholastic Atlas of Exploration, which I preferred. It didn't have quite as extensive account of the explorers' travels (dates, places, etc), but it had more of the related details like life aboard ship, etc and more illustrations. The pages were less densely packed with text, which made it better suited to my elementary age children.

We love Usborne books because they make history come alive; they are among our children's very favorite titles. This book does an excellent job of highlighting the adventures of great explorers and their accomplishments. Our children have a new list of things they 'want to be when they grow up' after spending time with this title!