(4) 4-6 Great Explorations series. Six explorers--including three Spanish conquistadors--are profiled alongside the lands and peoples they discovered and subjugated. Written in a colloquial style, several of the titles skate over the effects the Europeans' conquests had on the native populations, but for the most part these books are thorough. All six titles contain good-quality reproductions. Reading list, timeline, websites. Bib., ind. Review covers these Great Explorations titles: Vasco da Gama, Zebulon Pike, Samuel de Champlain, Francisco Pizarro, Juan Ponce de León, and Vasco Nuñez de Balboa.

Reviewer: Jeannine M. Chapman

(4) 4-6 Great Explorations series. Six explorers--including three Spanish conquistadors--are profiled alongside the lands and peoples they discovered and subjugated. Written in a colloquial style, several of the titles skate over the effects the Europeans' conquests had on the native populations, but for the most part these books are thorough. All six titles contain good-quality reproductions. Reading list, timeline, websites. Bib., ind. Review covers these Great Explorations titles: Vasco da Gama, Zebulon Pike, Samuel de Champlain, Francisco Pizarro, Juan Ponce de León, and Vasco Nuñez de Balboa.

Reviewer: Jeannine M. Chapman

(3) 4-6 When Tyler, a white fourteen-year-old, and his best friend Isaac, an emancipated slave, are taken captive by the Sioux in 1867, Tyler discovers for himself what it means to be enslaved. This sequel to Bigger and Sooner moves swiftly, and its exploration of racial identities (black, white, and Native American) is thought provoking.

Reviewer: Kitty Flynn

(3) 4-6 Great Explorations series. In each of these books, an informative, reader-friendly text mindfully balanced with archival photographs, prints, and maps in both color and black and white introduces history's most notable explorers. This well-organized series provides an engaging chronological biography for the report-driven reader as well as for the general inquirer. Reading list, timeline, websites. Bib., ind. [Review covers these Great Explorations titles: Hernando Cortés, Sir Ernest Shackleton, John Charles Frémont, Francisco Coronado, Marco Polo, and Sir Francis Drake.]

Reviewer: Tamara DePasquale

(3) 4-6 Great Explorations series. In each of these books, an informative, reader-friendly text mindfully balanced with archival photographs, prints, and maps in both color and black and white introduces history's most notable explorers. This well-organized series provides an engaging chronological biography for the report-driven reader as well as for the general inquirer. Reading list, timeline, websites. Bib., ind. [Review covers these Great Explorations titles: Hernando Cortés, Sir Ernest Shackleton, John Charles Frémont, Francisco Coronado, Marco Polo, and Sir Francis Drake.]

Reviewer: Tamara DePasquale

(3) YA Chapters alternate between the lives of Sitting Bull, the Sioux chief who resisted assimilation into Anglo culture, and James McLaughlin, the agent at Standing Rock Reservation charged with effecting that assimilation. The parallel structure, supported by considerable documented detail, illuminates the irreconcilable cultural differences that led to Sitting Bull's murder by Indian police answering to McLaughlin. Ind.

Reviewer: Frieda F. Bostian

(4) YA Great Explorations series. The well-researched books in this series will be useful to students writing reports. Maps and archival reproductions in both black and white and color extend the text, but the illustrations aren't always captioned and maps from antiquity aren't always labeled as such. Nevertheless, these are engaging introductions. Each book includes a chronology. Bib., ind. [Review covers these Great Expectations titles: Daniel Boone, Robert e. Peary, L Salle, Lewis and Clark, Captain James Cook, Ferdinand Magellan.]

Reviewer: Barbara Barstow

(4) YA Great Explorations series. The well-researched books in this series will be useful to students writing reports. Maps and archival reproductions in both black and white and color extend the text, but the illustrations aren't always captioned and maps from antiquity aren't always labeled as such. Nevertheless, these are engaging introductions. Each book includes a chronology. Bib., ind. [Review covers these Great Expectations titles: Daniel Boone, Robert e. Peary, L Salle, Lewis and Clark, Captain James Cook, Ferdinand Magellan.]

Reviewer: Barbara Barstow

(4) 4-6 Sarah's summer is ruined when she is forced to give up her room to her sister's boyfriend and teach him the ropes at her father's dog kennel. In spite of her plans to give him the cold shoulder, Sarah becomes friends with Michael, who accidentally killed his brother. Michael's eventual suicide and Sarah's acceptance of it strain credibility, but her first-person narration is convincingly voiced.

Reviewer: Jeannine M. Chapman

(3) 4-6 After his Confederate soldier father refuses to return home from the war, Tyler Bohanon takes on the responsibility of running the family farm in Missouri. With his new dog, Sooner, at his side, the thirteen-year-old hunts, defends the rights of a newly freed slave, and accepts further challenges when news of Papa's fate arrives. This sequel to 'Bigger' contains realistic characters and a colorful narrative voice.

Reviewer: The Horn Book, Inc.