Rivers: A Visual History from River to Sea

by Peter Goes

A breathtaking journey along the world’s most important rivers, from the author of international bestseller Timeline.

This breathtaking journey on the world’s most important rivers, seas and oceans tells the story of our planet through cultures, myths, icons and history. It takes us from the Nile to the Amazon, the Mekong Delta to the Mississippi, the Murray to the Waikato.

Each map is full of fascinating facts about nature, culture and history, with major events and historical figures alongside favourite stories and icons.

As the life source of people, animals and the land itself, the world’s waterways tell a compelling story about our history and our lives today. This absorbing, playful book shows who we are, how we live and the myths we weave around our people and places.

Genres: Nonfiction, Nature, Picture Books, Geography, Childrens, History, Juvenile

80 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 2018

About the author

Peter Goes lives in Belgium where he works as a freelance illustrator. He has also worked as a stage manager and studied animation at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts (KASK) in Ghent, Belgium

Reviews

[Mollyvknize · Rating 5 out of 5]

Knihy od Petera Goese jsou prostě poklad!

[Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Superb! Whimsically illustrated and filled with facts—river-related and otherwise—that might just help me remember my geography for once.

[Lian · Rating 4 out of 5]

I so wanted to give this five stars - will give it four and three-quarters. Everything about it is beautiful, from its size to its concept, layout, design and of course the incredible illustrations. I loved snooping all over the pages, looking for tasty morsels of fascinating info. Alas, I was often broken from my reverie by random facts that in no way relate to rivers, lakes or bodies of water. It just felt disjointed and random. The water-related facts are brilliant and so cohesive - how I wish they were all like that. I’m being picky. It’s nevertheless one of my favourite books this year. Amazing.

[Janna Odenthal · Rating 3 out of 5]

Liked this book a lot, but the dark colors made it difficult for me to have enough patience to read the whole thing. I hope it gets republished someday with lighter backgrounds.

[Bookrapt (Est. 1983) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Peter Goes, author/illustrator of Timeline, has produced another stunning, large format children's nonfiction book. This time the subject is the waterways of the world.

The book is divided into seven regions: Europe, North America, South America, Asia, Africa, Oceania and Antarctica. The first page in each section contains a map of the area covered showing the oceans and seas, the countries and the main rivers. Quirky icons show some aspects of the country's culture - e.g. Britain has clouds, a bowler-hatted man with an umbrella and a woman with a teapot while Netherlands features a wind turbine and a man on a bicycle. The following pages, which show the courses of the main rivers, contain engaging illustrations linked to relevant facts about nature, history and culture.

New Zealand features on the main Oceania page and there is a spread on the Waikato River that includes information on subjects as diverse as Abel Tasman, the haka, Polynesian navigation, the Sky Tower and Hobbiton.

This nonfiction picture book is very beautiful with its richly coloured pages and almost monochrome illustrations. Unfortunately, on some spreads, important details have been lost in the gutter. Rivers will appeal to anyone who enjoys maps and/or interesting facts and may spark more in-depth research on topics that appeal.

Reviewed by Penny Guy (Bookrapt)

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a couple of other reviewers have noted, this book is visually splendid, filled with interesting facts about the rivers of the world, but it's also easy to get distracted and find one's eyes wandering all over the page. There were times where I almost forget that I was reading about rivers and didn't even pay attention to the rivers outlined on the pages. The book is best consumed as a browsing experience, maybe looking at a couple of pages at a time. Since it is organized according to continents, starting with snippets about the five oceans and then moving to Europe and its various rivers before featuring those in North America, South America, Asia, Africa, Oceania, and ending in Antarctica, readers can use that organization to hold all this information in their heads. But there were times when I wanted to have the continents' names listed in a larger, more visible font, and times when the type was so small that I became a bit disoriented. Still, I felt a sense of accomplishment and worldliness as though I'd been on quite a watery sojourn by the time I reached the last pages. I'm certain there are many youngsters who will be mesmerized by this book and its contents, text and visual. In its own way, this book is just as satisfying as the author's earlier Timeline.

[Brian · Rating 2 out of 5]

The illustrations are fantastic and the scope of this world is awe-inspiring. I would have absolutely loved this as a child. I think my only complaint rests with the inclusion of certain pieces of information and the noticeable absence of relevant facts in different regions. In particular, I was struck by the inclusion of information about Soviet Gulags on page 46. This fact is included with no real connection to a river or any comparable information on other pages. I think contextualizing facts like this are important, but why include this at all if the author is not going to include information about the genocide of indigenous peoples in North & South America or Australia, etc.? Why mention this fact of human suffering while omitting the death toll of Belgium exploitation in the Congo? Why do we get a mention that Mosul is a region that has been 'subject to war and destruction' due to 'ethnic diversity and strategic importance' on page 44? Similarly, what does the image at the bottom of page 44 next to the border of Saudi Arabia and Syria have to do with anything? It appears to be a man and woman in outfits one might see in Saudi Arabian culture passing a letter behind their backs. There is no connection to any text on the page, so what is the purpose of this?

There are a few other points in the book that are disappointing in this regard. As I mentioned before, contextual history is valuable for young learners, but these feel like propagandizing inclusions that serve to demean people in the middle east as the stereotype of a conflict prone people.

I still enjoyed this work, but felt compelled to point these things out because others might not. Ideology sneaks up on us in subtle ways...

[Stephanie Bange · Rating 4 out of 5]

An intriguing look at the major rivers of the world, translated from the Dutch language.

Presented in oversize format, this beautiful book opens with an overview of the five oceans of the world, then breaks down to present the major 35 rivers of the world in order by continent. Europe receives the most attention with 13 rivers, Asia (8), North America (5), Oceania (4), and South America and Africa (3 each). While a few 2-page spreads discuss two rivers, most of the rivers receive their own spread. This includes one paragraph with a few facts about that river, a map of the river, and multiple facts about the river presented in separate paragraphs set in an italic font in an arc-shape with small illustrations by Goes - all spread out to fill up the two-page spread. The format is a little busy at times, with so much going on. Goes wisely limits each spread to a very limited palette that changes with the turn of the page.

This could be used as an exciting opening to study major rivers of the world, as it whets the mind and leaves it wanting to know much more. North Americans will find it to be a bit Euro-centric in nature and somewhat a disappointment as only five rivers are covered the Mississippi, Missouri, Colorado, Yukon, and Hudson Rivers. There is little/no mention of others that are longer or have played a big part in the history of Mexico, Canada, and the U.S. such as the Rio Grande, Mackenzie, Nelson-Saskatchewan, St. Lawrence, Ohio, Arkansas, Red, or Columbia Rivers.

Recommended browser for grades 4-6.

[Zach · Rating 3 out of 5]

The drawings, bright colors, and large size of the book are great. However, the book is very Eurocentric. For example, the book includes 12 spreads for European areas, including a spread for one area where there are no rivers (despite the book's title and fact that everything else is a river!). This compares to only 3 spreads for all of Africa and 2 spreads for all of South America, which hold both the longest and second-longest rivers in the world; Latin America got skipped entirely. I could say more about how many facts on each page are about European explorers or about how much of the non-European spreads are filled with facts about ocean animals, but I'll leave it at that. There were some scattered attempts to acknowledge native peoples, especially in the Oceania region. I also should acknowledge that the book is for children and that it was originally published in Dutch, perhaps for a Dutch audience. Perhaps that's what has skewed the portrayal of the world.

[LudmilaM · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.75 stars. Visually impressive book with interesting facts, but has two flaws:
First - the maps on each page (apart from the ones that show the whole continent) are not straightforward or transparent. Which is a big flaw of a geographically oriented book, especially when it’s meant primarily for kids.
Second - the facts have often very little to do with rivers and feel random and disjoined. That makes either title "Rivers" misleading, or the content selection getting away from creators of the book. History is vast and rich and easy to get lost in. Selecting the theme of rivers should have helped to not to get lost in said vastness, but paradoxically it did not.

[Betsey · Rating 3 out of 5]

The art in this book is absolutely beautiful. Unfortunately, the book’s contents are very Eurocentric and UK-focused - 22 pages for Europe, 8 for Africa. They also chose to use an extremely anti-southern hemisphere projection of the world as their cover page. You know the one, where Greenland looks about half the size of Africa. Africa is 14x the size of Greenland. Between the focus of the book and choice of a very skewed map projection it reads like willful ignorance in this day an age (at best!).

[Wendy LaMark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dit boek trok gelijk mijn aandacht door zijn omvang en zijn kleur,
Ik bladerde er doorheen en vond het reuze interessant. De manier waarop de informatie werd aangeboden vond ik leuk en het stimuleerde mij om meer en meer te lezen, ik wilde het allemaal weten.
De prachtige kleuren de illustraties en de vorm dagen kinderen, en ook volwassenen uit om actief te lezen. Ik kan niet wachten om hier een begrijpend lezen les mee te ontwerpen.

[Nathan De · Rating 5 out of 5]

What is your favorite river or ocean? Take an amazing, beautifully illustrated, learning adventure across the most impressive rivers around the world and learn about the life they contain or the historical events that have happened around their banks. Ever wondered where the expression crocodile tears comes from or where you can find the largest bridge for boats? A pleasure to read for young and old!

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Exceptionally stunning illustrations. Unfortunately the text was too chaotic for me: I had a hard time following the straight text plus the asides, and the river information had to navigate the banks of random animal info as well. It was just a lot.

A book to be sat with and pored over, not wolfed down.

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

This visually stunning book explores all the major rivers around the world. Organized geographically, each river is pictured on a two page monochromatic spread, with its wildlife, history, and culture depicted both pictorially and through small text boxes. This is immensely browsable for readers old and young. My grandson spent hours looking over it when he came to visit this month.

[Great Reads · Rating 5 out of 5]

We absolutely love this hard back book which is currently in stock in our book store in Poole. It's fantastically drawn with an abundance of interesting facts & details. Makes a great read for all ages and has kept me quiet on a quiet day.

[Diana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun large picture book about rivers around the world.

[Annie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very cool illustrations, but they’re not very effective or clear as maps. The information given is often entertaining but also pretty random.

[Anastazie Lytvyněnko · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nádherné. Krásné. Zábavné a naučné. Poklad mé knihovny

[Ettelwen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Velký štěstí mají, ty dnešní děti :)

[Jürgen Peeters · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mijn recensie van 'Rivieren' verscheen op 'MappaLibri'

http://mappalibri.be/?navigatieid=61&...

[Wojtek Konieczny · Rating 5 out of 5]

9/10