The Adventures of Marco Polo

July 1, 2005
Gr 3-6 -These books offer high-interest subject matter in a graphic-novel format. Historically accurate, each one presents brief information about the featured event. Yellowish-tan bubbles indicate direct quotations from primary sources. "Alamo", "Lincoln", and "Polo "are slightly stronger as stories than "King Tut", perhaps because they are about real events while "Tut" is as much about a superstition as it is about Howard Carter's discoveries. And make no mistake, these are stories, based on fact and classified as nonfiction; there is invented dialogue, which is close to melodramatic at times. Thoughts and feelings are also fictionalized. Likely to be snatched up by young and reluctant readers, these titles work as hooks to lead to more in-depth information or as fun and interesting reads. Colorful artwork with strong black lines is competently done and contributes to a sense of time and place. Great literature? No. Shelf sitters? Definitely not." -Peg Glisson, Mendon Center Elementary School, Pittsford, NY"

Copyright 2005 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 15, 2005
Reviewed with David West's " Hernan Cortes" .

Gr. 4-6. Debuting this spring are two curriculum-connected, full-color comics series aimed at elementary- and middle-graders: Capstone's Graphic Library and Rosen's Graphic Nonfiction. Both series cling to popular social-science topics, with an eye toward multiculturalism (e.g., both offer volumes about Harriet Tubman), and though the individual volumes have been created by diverse authors and illustrators, the series themselves each have a consistent look and feel. Both include glossaries and other appendixes for student use; they also have tight bindings that will help them circulate longer, but may intrude on their appeal to reluctant readers.

" Marco Polo" is an engaging introduction to the Italian explorer's travels to the court of Kublai Khan, with art that occasionally rises above simple illustration to provide narrative content. A good representative of the series, it uses a broad approach to its subject's life and achievements, and it includes traditional narrative front matter (written at a higher level than the main text) and maps, which are often overly busy.

" Cortes," like others in the series, focuses on one aspect of its subject's life, and creators have been careful to include Native American and female viewpoints in their depiction of Cortes' contact with the Aztecs. The illustrations make cunning use of Aztec glyphs, but otherwise add no new information. (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2005, American Library Association.)