[(Exploration and Conquest : Americas After Columbus, 1500-1620)] [By (author) Betsy Maestro ] published on

The American Story #2

by Betsy Maestro

Relates the story of the the first European explorers and settlers to come to America and details their effect on the people they encountered there

Genres: History, Picture Books, American History, Nonfiction, School, Geography, Childrens

Paperback

First published September 1, 1994

About the author

Before beginning her career in children's books, Betsy Maestro was a teacher. Her first book with Giulio Maestro was A Wise Monkey Tale published in 1975, and since then they have collaborated on more than one hundred books. Their on-going American Story series began with the highly acclaimed The Discovery of the Americas and continues to help young readers understand and appreciate our nations history.

The Maestros live with two cats and a goldfish in a converted cow barn in Old Lyme, Connecticut.

Reviews

[Julia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting, with excellent illustrations. I will look for the rest of this series.

[Luisa Knight · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm really coming to appreciate the work that the Maestro's have done with their picture books for children. They are well written, cover a surprising amount of facts without reading like a text book, and are wonderfully illustrated.

Ages: 6 - 12

Cleanliness: a few pictures of natives wearing only loincloths.

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[Willow · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a long and information-packed picture book. It's fast-paced and gives the briefest of surface knowledge into any given explorer or event. I think moving slowly through it with lots of outside supplemental material for each explorer would make this a fairly good spine book.

[Nisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Often times, books are written from one side or the other. This one is no different. It shows the atrocities, and they were atrocities, of one side only. History is not so easily painted.

[Denise · Rating 3 out of 5]

Too much information in a thin, small book; useful in refreshing my memory about the early explorers that I'd almost forgotten.

[Abigail · Rating 4 out of 5]

Author/illustrator team (and husband and wife) Betsy and Giulio Maestro, who began their six-volume picture book history of America with The Discovery of the Americas , chronicling the discovery of the Americas by various groups of people from prehistoric times to ca. 1500, return to the series in this second volume of The American Story, which looks at exploration and conquest within the Americas from 1500 through 1620. Beginning shortly after the voyages of Columbus, with the Treaty of Tordesillas, in which Spain and Portugal divided the "undiscovered" world between themselves, the book chronicles various European voyages of exploration to the Americas, and the founding of first colonies. Included are the conquest of Mexico's Aztec Empire by Cortés, Pizarro's conquest of the Incan Empire in western South America, de Soto's exploration of Florida, and Coronado's exploration of the Great Plains and southwest, before moving on to English, French and Dutch voyages and explorations. These include Verrazano's exploration of the North American coastline, Cartier's search for the Northwest Passage and exploration of Canada, and the voyages of John Hawkins and Francis Drake. The beginning of the transatlantic slave trade, the founding of English colonies at Roanoke and Jamestown, Champlain's explorations and settlements in Canada, and the voyages of Hudson are also included. The book concludes with a discussion of the impact of European exploration and settlement on native peoples, and closes with back matter including a table of dates, a list of explorers, notes about North America from 1500-1620, contact between explorers and specific Native American peoples, a list of crops and inventions Native Americans contributed to the world, and a list of colonies...

Published in 1994, Exploration and Conquest: The Americas After Columbus: 1500-1620 continues the Maestros' project of chronicling American history for the picture book set, covering a wide range of people and events in forty-eight pages. Like its predecessor, I sought it out because I am aware of how prolific the Maestros are—they have created over ninety books for young people—and because I was curious to see how they would present the history. On the whole I was favorably impressed here, much as I was in the book on discovery. I appreciated that the Maestros didn't leave out less palatable parts of history—the impact of conquest on native peoples, the beginning of the slave trade—but that the narrative felt balanced. This was a period of history in which momentous changes occurred, globally. One that involved great discoveries, the expansion of knowledge and the redrawing of the global map, and the beginning of movements of people that would transform the world—all exciting things—but which also brought great suffering to many. I think that contrast makes the topic all the more fascinating, so kudos to the Maestros to capturing both strands of the history under discussion. My only quibble, when it comes to how the impact of European exploration and conquest on native peoples was presented, would be that there was too much of a "tragic thing of the past" tone to how it was covered. Of course, it was very tragic, and it is part of history—of the past. That said, many native peoples are still here today, and have sovereign governments on their tribal lands (however imperfectly implemented and respected by the larger nation). I think I would have preferred language that emphasized the devastating impact of exploration and conquest on many native nations—many peoples and cultures were indeed wiped out—but that avoided the feeling that they were mostly gone.

Leaving that aside, I think this could make an excellent basic text for this subject, when teaching children, and could be used with other titles that cover specific topics—native civilizations, specific explorations and colonies, etc—in order to expand on what it presented here. It is for that purpose that I would recommend it.

[Sandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

After loving the first book, The Discovery of the Americas: From Prehistory Through the Age of Columbus, I decided to purchase this next Betsy Maestro American History book. Honestly, there is so much that I learned in reading this book to my children. It was fascinating to hear some of the explorer's names and start to piece together certain places I've been around the country and how those places have received their namesakes.

I appreciate that this book did not shy away from the tough topics of the brutalities to and destruction of the Indigenous American tribes and also introduced the sad realities of the slave trade.

[Leila Chandler · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was mostly good. I love the illustrations in this series of books. However, it was quite anti-christian and anti-white people. I do like that these books are honest and fairly accurate about what happened to the native peoples of America. It doesn't try to hide it or justify it. On the other hand, it paints all the Spanish and all the natives with the same broad brush. The Spanish did THIS and the natives thought THAT. It said that the Spanish forced the natives to be Catholic and that the natives always resisted this. When I was reading it my kids I changed it to say that the Spanish priests tried to teach Catholicism to the natives, and that some of them were not happy about that.

[Colin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully illustrated book for kids about the Age of Discovery and the first contacts of the peoples pf the Americas with Europeans. It is not extremely graphic about the consequences of that contact, but it does address the terrible impact it had.

[Ebookwormy1 · Rating 2 out of 5]

A good resource.

Helpful in our program, but not essential. If this wasn't part of our curriculum, I don't think I'd run out to buy it. For it's role in our curriculum, I was satisfied with it, but not blown away. If I was to recommend one book on the topic, I'm not sure this would be it.

[Shannon Clark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Informational picture book.

My favorite line from this book was:

"The great gain of one people was the great loss of another."

[Bigboyswag1]

I sort of don't like it but it tell's alot of information

[Mrjoslin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting book and definitely something I'll use in my 5th grade classroom when we learn about the early explorations of the New World.

[Erika · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very useful and informative for 5th graders learning more about explores and the reasons the search for lands across seas.

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very solid overview of the age of exploration and the conquest of the Americas. Timeline and authors notes are included.

[Amy Bodkin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice overview....she doesn't sugar coat it.

[Rebecca Reid · Rating 4 out of 5]

fantastic

[April · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love this series!