154. The Discovery of the Americas

The Discovery of the Americas: From Prehistory Through the Age of Columbus by Betsy and Giulio Maestro


Pages: 48
Finished: Sept. 24, 2008
First Published: 1991
Genre: children, non fiction, history
Rating: 4/5

Reason for Reading: read aloud to my 8yo for school

First sentence:

Many thousands of years ago, the world was a very different place.

Comments: A history of North America from land bridge theory to Magellan's trip around the world. Presented in a large picture book format the text is appropriate for ages 6 and up. The illustrations are vivid, bright, detailed and interesting. Maps help visualize all exploration routes. My son enjoyed the book very much and certainly retained the information. I found it an enjoyable book to read aloud and thought the narrative text was interesting. The only problems I had was that the land bridge theory was presented as fact rather than theory. As a Christian, I was content with the prehistory portions and simply substituted the words many years for exaggerated thousands of years. One page talked about the brutal, mean Christians and can easily be skipped and I found no anti-Catholicism. Overall, an enjoyable book to learn about the early explorers.