Customer Reviews

York's Adventures with Lewis and Clark: An African-American's Part in the Great Expedition (Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding Nonfiction for Children (Awards))

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Rhoda Blumberg's YORK'S ADVENTURES WITH LEWIS AND CLARK: An African-American's Part in the Great Expedition, cries out for an Oprah spotlight. Blumberg painstakingly and faithfully recreates how York worked, starved, sweated, suffered, and trailblazed alongside Lewis, Clark, Sacagawea (one of several slaves married to one of the expedition's interpreters, rough-and-tumble Toussaint Charbonneau), and the rest of the crew. A phenomenal human story and a tragic lesson of how prejudice causes society to undervalue a great man's contributions to American and world history.

An overlooked character is given a very three dimensional portrait in this book. The book should be given credit for portraying all the people in the expedition what is most likely a more honest rendering (ie, that Lewis and Clark both owned slaves, weren't always kind to them, and that at the end of his life, York was not treated very fairly by Clark, and the two parted company in a sour way.) The expedition is presented in a way that is easy to follow, and with a historical perspective not typically seen in childrens book.

Love the pictures. Great story, a perspective not heard much about. Read aloud with your Lewis and Clark unit.

The story is mind-blowing. It is told by a master storyteller who is a genuine history buff and an ardent researcher. Rhoda Blumberg's books are fascinating.