Jennifer Thermes

Comprehensive and magnificent. The endpapers (front and back) provide a timeline from "circa 15,000 years ago or more" to 2022, noting that "this timeline is only a partial list of events." In between, maps and illustrations in soft pastels are paired with text that describes the often brutal history of what is now America, looking unblinkingly at European colonization, enslavement of Africans, wars, broken treaties, the civil rights movement, and September 11. She concludes, "It takes courage for someone to leave the place where they were born and set out for a new land. Sometimes, people have no other choice. Laws and rules and policies will come and go, but humans will always move about the earth in search of a better life."

Back matter includes an afterword and select sources (books and websites).

Essential.… (mer)

I have to say upfront that I don’t believe in using horses (or any animal or human child) in any way for any sort of financial gain. I don’t believe in riding horses either, even though I know there are good therapeutic programs and in some cases great love between horses & human riders. One half star off for that personal reason. 4-1/2 stars. That said, I will review the book.

The book is pretty much perfect. The illustrations, including the illustrated pictorial maps, are beautifully done and I loved them all. I could spend ages looking at the pictures.

The information provided is first rate excellent. Great history, great info about different horses & places and horses in human history. An author’s note, a short list of sources, and a timeline are included in the back. Any young (or any age) reader interested in horses is bound to appreciate and enjoy this book. I was never horse obsessed but I have several friends who were (and/or are) and this book would be perfect for them. I wish it had been around when I was young because I can think of a few friends I’d have bought it for as their birthday gift.

Until I had the book in hand I hadn’t realized that it was written & illustrated by the same person who did the book Manhattan: Mapping the Story of an Island another book I loved. I’ll be looking out for more books by Jennifer Thermes.

Highly recommended for anyone who has interest in the subject.… (mer)

This author's specialty is illustrated maps, Darwin's five year voyage is an obviously good subject. The maps, eight in all, are cartoon-like and also informative. The end-papers consist of maps and an associated time-line, and are quite nice.

This book repeats once more the myth of Darwin's squeamishness, I quote "the sight of blood made him queasy". It also dips into romantic paradox, clumsily, as in this passage: "Charles was surrounded by the buzz of millions of insects, yet the jungle wrapped him in velvet silence." Who can that sentence be for? It also transfers the beetle-in-mouth episode to Darwin's childhood years from his college years. I suspect that the author did "research" by reading Kathryn Lasky's book "One Beetle Too Many", and failed to notice Lasky's brief historical note at the start of the book about the beetle-in-mouth episode.

The illustrations are light and a bit whimsical and include many animals, some labeled some not. There is one cutaway view of the interior of the Beagle, showing a bunch of Galapagos turtles waiting to be turned into dinner which is probably true to the life, although a bit out of scale.

There are some endnotes containing anecdotes and small facts as well as a brief capsule biography.

The author reminds the reader several times about how Darwin's time is different from our own. It's important to understand that, but I'm not sure her remarks are very effective.

There are a few malapropisms or grammar errors. I'll note just one, "As the Beagle blew across the sea". "was blown", "sailed", "travelled", would all have been better choices.

Mostly correct, pleasantly drawn, and reasonably informative, this is a good book for children.… (mer)