Christopher Columbus: A Great Explorer

by Carol Greene

A biography of the fifteenth-century Italian seaman and navigator who unknowingly discovered a new continent while looking for a western route to India.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Biography

46 pages, Library Binding

First published May 1, 1989

About the author

Has degrees in English Literature and musicology. She has worked in international exchange programs, as an editor, and as a teacher of writing. Lives in Webster Groves, Missouri.

Reviews

[Gator · Rating 2 out of 5]

A bit progressive, kind of trashes Columbus a pinch.
No need to trash someone from 500 yrs ago who can’t defend himself. Eh, I’d pick a different version then this one.

[Evan · Rating 2 out of 5]

On the positive side, this 'Rookie Biography' (Published by the Children's Press of Chicago) by Carol Greene includes numerous visual, reproductions (usually in the form of drawings or paintings) of things including the Port of Genoa, Columbus' childhood home and the room of his birth, maps of the day, his cabin on the Santa María, and comparisons of depictions of his return to Spain.

Moreover, the biography is fairly basic but does include more details (like the names of his parents and wife) and random facts (i.e., the fort built on Hispaniola after the 1st voyage was constructed mainly from wood salvaged from the Santa María after it shipwrecked) than most others written for the same age/reading level. I would critique the strange spacing of limited text on each page (as if it is written in poetic couplets, when it is simply informational text).

I would also criticize the author's description, on page 28, of what Columbus brought back to Spain after his first voyage to the 'New World', writing, "He brought parrots, plants and shells, six island people, and a little bit of gold." Greene lists these kidnapped Native American slaves as if they are common items to trade, hardly leaving the young reader time to pause and reflect on such an event in history.

Similarly, on page 41, Greene writes that Columbus and his men "had to leave" Central America upon subsequent voyages (after his arrest by Bobadilla and imprisonment in Spain for approximately 2 years) because "the Central Americans weren't too friendly." Yet any explanation of the European conquistadors brutal treatment of the Natives they had met since 1492 is absent. Instead, she writes on page 33, "Columbus did some cruel things." This seems like either a huge oversight or a subjective and anti-historical letting-him-off-the-hook.

Still, the book does discuss Columbus' failures to some degree, and provides meager information about his subsequent voyages to the 'New World', including the massive second voyage in which he led 17 ships and over one thousand men back across the Atlantic Ocean.

[Colleen Jones · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is best suited for 1st through 4th grade because it is simple in its sentence structure yet contains real biographical content. It details the life of Christopher Columbus from his childhood through his last days. A majority of the story describes his trip in search of the Indies; it explains his proposal to the monarchs of Spain and all of the journeys that he made in search of Japan and China. It touches on his time of incarceration and mentions the thoughts that Columbus had when he discovered the new world, suggesting that he did not know that the land he encountered was indeed new, but rather that it was actually his desired destination. I did not enjoy reading this book; the historical data was not fully accurate. While I did appreciate the simple language and limitation for the amount of words on each page making it an attainable task for young learners, it portrayed Columbus' journey from the standpoint of Europeans. It was bias to Europe in its description of events, completely disregarding the violent actions taken by the sailors upon their arrival but repeatedly speaking of reciprocated violence from the natives of the land. In a classroom, this book could be useful in a library for an open bookshelf feature on history to expose young children to a biography. It could also be used for history projects in the upper elementary grades in which the students have to do research of their own; this book is simple enough that they could read on their own and fully comprehend the events.

[Emma · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has no awards and is best for 1st to 4th graders. It starts right from the very beginning of his life, even pointing out what his grandfathers' jobs were. It also tells of his previous jobs, his marriage, and his travels. Columbus ends up getting lost while looking for Japan and stumbles upon the Indies. This is not a book adapted to children's illustrations, as they are very historical illustrations - some even in black and white. This book is full of information with an impressive table of contents for five chapters, as well as an index and "important dates" page in the back. This touches on the more negative aspects of his travels, such as owning slaves and punishing them, which may be sensitive depending on the grade level. Since this is definitely for older grades, more in depth research could be done on one of the many locations his men and him landed in. Another in class use could be more research to be done on one historical "important date" of the child's choice.