Columbus - Hardcover

Demi

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0761461671 ISBN 13: 9780761461678

Publisher: Two Lions, 2012

Synopsis

Born in 1451 in the seafaring nation of Genoa in northern Italy, Christopher Columbus grew up watching ships sail into the harbor loaded with riches from Egypt, Spain, England, and Belgium. Columbus was convinced that he could gain gold, silk, ivory, and much personal wealth for himself if he were to sail west from Europe to the East and trade with China and India. When Queen Isabella of Castile and King Ferdinand of Aragon finally provided him with three ships, a crew, and supplies for his journey, Columbus embarked on the first of four voyages to the East in 1492. Although he never reached Asia, he did land in Central and South America, establishing a firm foothold in America and opening up wider European exploration to the new continent and other foreign lands.

Demi portrays Columbus as a great navigator and explorer, but she also provides a balanced view of his accomplishments, describing his enslavement of the native Taino Indians of Central America and his mismanagement of the colonies that he established in the Indies. Using Chinese paintbrushes and inks, gold overlays, and Italian marbled paper from Florence, Italy, she paints Columbus’s vast world with characteristic skill and beauty.

About this title

About the Author

Demi was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She studied art at the Instituto Allende in Guanajuato, Mexico; with Sister Corita at the Immaculate Heart College in Los Angeles; at the M. S. University in Baroda, India, while on a Fulbright scholarship; and at the China Institute for Arts in New York City. Her husband, Tze-si Jesse Huang, introduced her to the religion, folklore, ancient culture, and history of China, after which she became intrigued by the stories she read about Marco Polo.

Demi is the author and illustrator of more than three hundred children’s books, including picture book biographies of spiritual leaders such as Jesus, Buddha, the Dalai Lama, Gandhi, and Muhammad. Su Donpo: Chinese Genius retells and illustrates true Chinese leadership and heroism, and numerous folktales such as The Empty Pot and Liang and the Magic Paintbrush transmit the wonder and magic of China. Her work has received many awards and ac­colades, among them the Christopher Award, which recognizes individuals whose work makes a positive difference in the world, and the Middle East Book Award. Her titles have been designated American Library Association Notable Children’s Books, New York Times Best Illustrated Books, Notable Books for a Global Society, and American Bookseller Pick of the List Books.

Reviews

From his childhood in Italy to his death in Spain, this biography presents a detailed view of the explorer’s life. The text is readable but lengthy; several direct quotations are included, with sources listed in an author’s note. Columbus’s faults and accomplishments are both presented, acknowledging that his drive to explore furthered Europeans’ knowledge of other lands, but that his mistreatment of Native peoples devastated their lives and culture. To create rich visual images, Demi utilized Chinese paint and inks, gold overlays, and Italian marbled paper. Each stylized, single- or two-page painting is enclosed in a decorative frame and set on parchment color paper. Ferdinand and Isabella’s throne room is full of sumptuous texture, while a storm at sea is a mass of swirling shape and color. The Native people are depicted as naked but without physical features. As with her earlier works, Demi’s art commands attention.–School Library Journal, January 2013

Demi turns her biographical and artistic skills to Christopher Columbus in this balanced recounting of his life, from a youth who felt “the call of sea” to the man who helped establish a European foothold in the Americas. The author doesn’t underplay the difficulties of Columbus’s multiple journeys to the New World: one characteristically detailed scene shows the bloody massacre of Spaniards by Taino Indians who were “angered by the way the Spanish had mistreated them.” Writing that Columbus died “a magnificent failure,” Demi’s thorough account fully demonstrates how Columbus changed the world, both for good and ill. Ages 8–12. (Publisher's Weekly, Sept. 2012)

Christopher Columbus’ life is surveyed in Demi’s signature style: three-quarters of each page are filled with an elaborate and delicately bordered illustration of the scene described in the paragraph next to it. The characters and settings are rendered with Chinese ink and brushes with gold overlays, and the seafaring action is presented on marbled paper from Italy, making the art beautiful, wavelike, and geographically relevant. The saga of the native Italian is written in sentences that are often choppy but consistently tell a balanced story—the good (a brave and devout explorer) and the bad (an enslaving tyrant). Unfortunately, some key pieces of information are lacking, which prevents this attractive book from being an attractive and practical book: the incomplete source documentation is crammed into a note on the verso; not every quotation is cited; occasionally important elements of maps are unlabeled; and there’s no index. So while report writers for the target age group may be stymied, casual readers and admirers of this prolific book creator may still be pleasantly satisfied. Grades 3-5. --Andrew Medlar

Edition details

• Publisher: Two Lions
• Publication date: 2012
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0761461671
• ISBN 13: 9780761461678
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: Demi
• Number of pages: 64