Explorers Who Got Lost

by Diane Sansevere-Dreher

A look at the unintentional "discoveries" of some of history's explorers discusses, among others, Columbus's stumbling upon the Bahama Islands, San Salvador, and Cuba, and includes information on the navigational equipment of the times. Reissue.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Childrens, Biography, School, American History

135 pages, Paperback

First published August 15, 1958

About the author

Diane Sansevere-Dreher received her B.A. in Communications from New York University. She has worked in public relations as a marketing consultant in the book, audio, and video industries. She is the author of numerous articles published in magazines, including Billboard, Sight and Sound Marketing, and Software News. Ms. Sansevere-Dreher is also the author of three juvenile biographies in the Changing Our World series (Bantam Books): Barbara Bush, Benazir Bhutto, and Stephen Biko. She lives in Pennsylvania with her husband and four children.

Reviews

[Pam Christison · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. Middle grade, not too much to it but some interesting snippets. Some explorers I didn't know much about, and I guess I'd forgotten that Christopher Columbus never realized that he wasn't in China so that was fun. But really, if you think about it, isn't being lost really the point of being an explorer? Hard to explore someplace people already have mapped.

[Daniel Cohen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I remember some of our junior high history lessons, but it's really time to refresh. This book is written for junior high, exactly the right age group for me!
The book is a brief account of the major explorers of the 14th and 15th centuries. The Portuguese and Spanish knew that the Earth was round, and they wanted to get the spices, silks, and riches of the Orient. But they didn't know how big it was, and they didn't know how big Africa was, and they knew nothing about the Americas or even the Pacific Ocean. So it's no surprise that they all got lost, somewhere in this wide world!
Anyway the adventures are all told from a personal angle, which is refreshing. Even the illustrations for each story show the personal angle -- although sometimes that person in the local guy.

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

Perspective is everything.

[Shannon · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a read-aloud for school. While informative and sometimes entertaining, it did become a bit tedious to read aloud.

[Belle Meade School]

910.922

[Christen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this book with my son for our history curriculum. Was very informative with lots of interesting information. Many editing errors which makes me hope the information was not with error as well.

[Yaseira Jayaseelan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting & Historical!

Rating:🏆🥉🥇🏅🥈🎖️🏆🥉🥇🏅🥈🎖️🏆🥉🥇🏅🥈🎖️

[Ebookwormy1 · Rating 4 out of 5]

The adventure of exploration is tampered by blundering through new situations and fear of the unknown. This excellent book that enlightens students as to the challenges and missteps of exploration. While most of the explorers emerge as heroes, many are not recognized for their contribution until years later, because they didn't find what they were looking for, they found something else!

The author does a good job capturing not only the details of their journeys, but the different backgrounds and personalities that compelled them to explore. She also is not afraid to account the mixed motivations of her stars, and the investors (countries & businessmen) that financed them. The fickleness of investors in response to unanticipated results is also discussed.

This is a great book, especially for boys. It gives enough of the hype to make the stories interesting, but enough of the realism to give the student insights into real world challenges. Highly recommended.

[Medina]

When I first had to start teaching about exploration this book was a life saver for me. The kids were fascinated by the stories and it had all the information I needed them to know contained withing the stories.

[Dawn Roberts · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent read-aloud with longer, detailed accounts of some of the most important European explorers.

[Sid Bommareddy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Received this for my 9th birthday. It was THE book that inspired my love for history and adventure. Obviously not the most detailed but more than enough for its target audience.

[Lisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very dull way to present explorers