Exploration and Encounters 1450-1550: The Search for a Northern Route (Exploration and Encounters 1450-1550) - Hardcover

Chrisp, Peter

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0750208112 ISBN 13: 9780750208116

Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton Childrens Division, 1995

Synopsis

An addition to the EXPLORATION AND ENCOUNTERS 1450-1550 series, describing the European search for a northern sea route to Asia, which led to the first European settlements of North America in the early 1600s. Illustrated with colour and black and white photographs throughout. Ties in with National Curriculum History Key Stage 2.

About this title

About the Author:

Peter Chrisp is a highly experienced and entertaining author of information books for children - specializing in history.

From School Library Journal:

Grade 3-4-Chrisp chronicles the progression of Portuguese exploration from 1450 to 1550, from their early attempts to edge down the coast of Africa, to their decline as a colonial power in the wake of more powerful European rivals. Each double-page chapter has a brief text, numerous colorful illustrations- primarily period engravings and paintings-and boxed quotations of primary-source material. These boxes, which are sometimes more extensive than the main text, add insight by providing a period perspective, but tend to focus on gory details (e.g., a sailor's vivid description of rotting gums from scurvy, and a witness's account of the mutilation and murder of Muslim captives). Much of the art is only peripherally related to the text, making it primarily decorative. The maps are a little more useful, but each one shows only the small region under discussion, without ever depicting the entire "world" of the Portuguese. The glossary has clear, concise definitions, but the further reading list is too brief and general to be of much use. Yet the narrative flows in a smooth chronology, and Chrisp has provided a surprisingly detailed glimpse of European life in the 15th- 16th centuries. The result is easily accessible material for report writers. Not as inviting or informative as Leonard Everett Fisher's Prince Henry the Navigator (Macmillan, 1990), it is nonetheless a clear introduction to the topic.
Sandy Kirkpatrick, Benicia Public Library, CA
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton Childrens Division
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 0750208112
• ISBN 13: 9780750208116
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 48