Ferdinand Magellan: Circumnavigating the World (In the Footsteps of Explorers)

The text narrates with detail Magellan's quest for an alternative route to the coveted Spice Islands, a journey financed by an ambitious Spanish king, and led by a famous or infamous Portuguese-born explorer Magellan. The text is appropriate for use in the classroom; its language targets fourth to sixth graders; and its content is valuable. By this, I mean that it does not give the limited information that you would find in an encyclopedia. I even remember learning about Magellan in 7th grade, and never had an idea of how brutal and violent a journey of this nature could be. Readers may also get a better idea of what long journeys in ships were like: crews having to confront scurvy (an illness that affected the teeth), possible starvation, other illnesses related to malnutrition, and (in this text) mutiny. Although a violent account (readers learn from a man's throat being slit for leading a mutiny) and of torture devices used by Magellan to control sailors, the author is careful enough in describing these in a manner appropriate for school children addressed in these texts. As I read this text, I got a strong feeling that the greed of these empires in those days had dire consequences on the people used for these expeditions.As in Ponce De Leon, this text also uses text features, such as sidebars, illustrations, maps, photos, and text boxes that give additional information in an effective manner. It even includes a recipe of a native food, or of a food consumed by the sailors. The text is also properly organized with headings and subtitles. In addition, information about the native peoples that are part of this story is included. This is a great complementary text about the exploration age.

For such a short book, I found it to be full of fun little bits of trivia and perfect to hold the interest of a kid. It outlined the voyage of Magellan and gave the story from more than one perspective (did the crew do the right thing or not? The answer is left ambiguous) but more than just that is touched on. For example, a single page is devoted to describing what was provided for the crew - food and such. You end the book feeling that the survival of the crew was surprising and that fact gives weight to the idea that it was a monumental task worth celebrating, despite the tragedy and savagery that surrounded the whole thing.

For a book written to elementary students, I didn't feel that the torture stories of the Spanish Inquisition and onboard Magellan's ship needed to be included. It is unfortunate because the illustrations would have been valuable for my 9 yo son's study of explorers but after he read a few pages he asked to not have to continue reading it. He found the stories too disturbing.

Good

I thought it would be a little less pictures and more book. But it was approved for my 11 year olds book report so, I assume its age appropriate.

Great information!