really enjoyed reading this with my son, He loves Christopher Columbus now and wants to study about him constantly, It was a great book that shows the inspiration in the founding of America, Written in a first person narrative though it is not really an autobiography, It makes it readable but I constantly question accuracy,
I must say Columbus didn't NOT have an easy go of it even after he became famous as the Admiral of the Oceans,
A weak spot for me was the ambiguity of the churches and missionaries mentioned herein, I assume they were Roman Catholic though that is never stated in the book, Were they trying to give the book a more universal appeal or did they not know If they did not know then perhaps a little more research was called for.
If they did know then perhaps a little more openness was called for, The setting is Spain, Portugal, the Atlantic Ocean, and America, InChristopher discovered a land, If he hadn't wanted to be a sailor when he grew up, we would be living in Europe! His brother, Bartholomew, made his maps! My favorite part was when Christopher discovered Jamaica.
He saw the longest dug out canoes he'd ever seen, Some werefeet long!! Another foundation book for our Columbus unit, This one definitely went into more detail, For being a biography, the pace stayed pretty constant and engaging, My older son was the reader for this one, and he managed to enjoy it, so thats a recommendation in and of itself, Great "first person" account of the Christbearer's life, Great for my fifth grader, but very simple, This was a very interesting firstperson account of the travels and, interestingly, trials of Christopher Columbus, I learned a great deal about the details of his adventures and troubles, It was quite interesting to have the depth of details put into this "elementary" text! I enjoyed the tale, The author made up for some of the areas that little is known about Columbus, The focus on Columbus life as a missioner is interesting, His title as an explorer is usually the main focus of many books, it was good hearing both missioner and explorer title sharing the main focus, I am more intrigue to read and learn more about Columbus from as a missionary, Read as part of our homeschool curriculum, I liked this book because Columbus was an explorers, I like learning about explorers, Risking shipwreck and failure, he sought to spread the gospel by discovering new lands,
Book Details: Format: Paperback Publication Date:Pages:Reading Level: Ageand Up,