Into the Unknown: How Great Explorers Found Their Way by Land, Sea, and Air

by Stewart Ross, Stephen Biesty (Illustrator)

Overview

Ready to relive some of the most daring voyages of all time? Unfold these spectacular cross sections and explore fourteen historic journeys.

Open this dynamic book and discover how the greatest explorers in history — from Marco Polo to Neil Armstrong — plunged into the unknown and boldly pieced together the picture of the world we have today. With the help of masterful cross sections, dramatic storytelling, and sidebars that highlight key concepts, places, and technology, immerse yourself in such expeditions as: 
—Leif Eriksson’s voyage to North America (eleventh century) 
—Zheng’s travels from China to East Africa (fifteenth century) 
—Magellan’s circumnavigation of the globe (sixteenth century) 
—Tenzing Norgay’s and Edmund Hillary’s scaling of Mt. Everest (twentieth century) 
—Plus ten more exciting journeys!
Back matter includes an index, a glossary, and sources.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780763649487
Publisher:	Candlewick Press
Publication date:	04/12/2011
Pages:	96
Sales rank:	1,063,173
Product dimensions:	8.40(w) x 9.90(h) x 0.90(d)
Lexile:	1120L (what's this?)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Stewart Ross has been writing children’s history books for over 20 years. He has over 200 published titles to his credit that have been translated into more than fifteen languages. He has also taught history all over the world. He lives in Kent, England.

Stephen Biesty’s first book for children, Stephen Biesty's Incredible Cross-Sections, has sold more than a million copies worldwide since its publication in 1992. He lives in Somerset, England.

Editorial Reviews

Ross and Biesty take readers on fourteen historical explorations… Although the human drive for discovery underlies each account, answering the ‘how did they do that?’ question becomes the focus of this remarkable book.
—The Horn Book (starred review)

Lively writing captures the excitement of exploration while providing just enough geographic and historical detail.
—School Library Journal (starred review)

Featured/recommended on Oprah's 2012 Kids Reading List
—Oprah.com

A true lesson in bravery and perseverance, this book will make your little one marvel at man's constant quest for exploration.
—The Washington Post

From the Publisher

Gr 4–8—The major accomplishments of 14 explorers are presented with strong support from illustrations. Chapters move chronologically from Pytheas in 340 BC to the 1969 Moon landing, combining famous names such as Marco Polo and Magellan with lesser-known but equally interesting figures including Mary Kingsley (Africa), Umberto Nobile (North Pole), and Auguste Piccard (stratospheric flight and deep-sea submersion). Each chapter provides basic background on the topic, then focuses largely on the nuts and bolts of the journeys, including travel conditions, navigation techniques, and vehicle construction. Lively writing captures the excitement of exploration while providing just enough geographic and historical detail. Biesty's pencil and colored pencil artwork ably builds upon the text, with each chapter featuring several insets plus one dramatic gatefold per chapter. In each fairly sturdy foldout, an initial illustration expands in two consecutive unfoldings to reveal further details. For Piccard's undersea exploration, for example, a map identifies the location of the Mariana Trench. This unfolds to show the depth levels of the descent, with helpful visual comparisons to a stack of Empire State Buildings (for depth) and Airbuses (for air pressure). The sequence climaxes with a final foldout depicting Piccard's deep-sea craft in detail, with labeled cross-sections in Biesty's appealing style. Other appropriate touches round out the well-conceived package, including pages with textured paper effects to match the era, from early parchment to a Moon map for the Apollo 11 voyage. Useful for report writers, attractive to browsers, and just right for readers who are curious about the adventure of exploration.—Steven Engelfried, Wilsonville Public Library, OR

School Library Journal

Biesty's trademark amusing, informatively detailed illustrations are a highlight of this entertaining examination of several voyages of exploration. Brief chapters in chronological order are presented on durable, very light cardboard stock with backgrounds appropriate to the era of the voyage: parchment, notebook paper, graph paper, etc. Chapters cover an impressive range of exploration. In addition to the usual suspects, they include a 340 B.C.E. Greek voyage to the Arctic Circle; Chinese Admiral Zheng He to India; David Livingston and Mary Kingsley into the African interior; Umberto Nobile flying over the North Pole, August and Jacques Piccard to the stratosphere and the bottom of the Marianas Trench, respectively; Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay to the top of Everest; and Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin to the surface of the moon. Each chapter includes a fold-out section of illustrations with a map of the journey and a cross-section of the method of transportation. Other illustrations expand on some of the equipment mentioned in the text. The fold-outs fit nicely into the volume, smaller than the "real" pages so they close up neatly. The chapters provide a level of detail that's just right for entertainment; intrigued readers may try some of the sources listed in the backmatter. (These are mostly primary source materials, potentially daunting for young readers.) An altogether agreeable package for armchair explorers. (glossary, index) (Nonfiction. 9-13)

Kirkus Reviews

…this engaging guide…convey[s] the adventurers' motivations as well as the geographical and logistical challenges involved in each quest.
—The Washington Post

Abby McGanney Nolan