About the Author:
John Dyson has sailed the oceans of the world in everything from polar icebreakers to tall ships. His most recent book, Columbus: For Gold, God and Glory, is an indepth account of crossing the Atlantic in a replica of the caravel Niņa.
Peter Christopher is an award-winning photographer of international renown who sailed with John Dyson on board the Niņa in the summer of 1990. Dr. Luis Miguel Coin Cuenca, the historical consultant for this book, is a professor or maritime history at the university of Cadiz in Spain.
From School Library Journal:
Grade 4-7-- Fiction alternates with fact in this account of a modern voyage undertaken to prove that Columbus took a more southerly route than is generally believed. The nonfiction portion describes the trip made by Spanish historian, Luis Miguel Coin, who believes that Columbus followed a secret map through Portuguese-held waters. Excellent full-color photographs show a crew of students dressed in 15th-century costume, aboard ship and reenacting Columbus's claiming of the New World for Spain. A map shows the historically accepted route as well as Coin's, and the narrative explains the natural clues he used to support his claim. The fictional account of Pedro, a young deck hand on the Santa Maria who returns to Spain on the Nina after that vessel sank, incorporates many details of shipboard life, portrays the anguish of the Indians who were forced to accompany Columbus to Spain, and gives a plausible (if undocumented) explanation of how there could have been a secret map. While students doing reports may find the alternating texts confusing, the book is valuable for the illustrative material. Readers may wish to compare it with the Roops' I, Columbus (Walker, 1990), which consists of excerpts from Columbus's own shipboard journals and with Nancy Levinson's Christopher Columbus (Lodestar, 1990), which incorporates much recent scholarship on Columbus into a readable work. --Jean H. Zimmerman, Willett School, South River, NJ
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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