From School Library Journal Grade 6-12-- As in Kathy Pelta's Discovering Christopher Columbus (Lerner, 1991), the Wests explore the ways in which historians have discovered the facts about Columbus. However, they employ a different and somewhat unusual format to show how fact has been distinguished from fiction. Unlike the Pelta book, which devotes just two chapters to Columbus's life and journies, the Wests present a detailed chronological account of the explorer's four voyages describing the difficulties encountered, the composition of the crew, various routes, and Columbus's mistakes as well as his triumphs. Subtitled notes in paragraph form covering such topics as "Where Did Columbus Land?" and "Asian Discoveries of the New World" are inserted throughout. These extensive notes, although informative, tend to interrupt the otherwise smooth flow of the narrative. The authors quote freely from Columbus diaries, and include many useful and attractive black-and-white reproductions of woodcuts and paintings, and maps. The book is well researched and contains a helpful chronology, although the bibliography is not as extensive as the one in Pelta's biography. It includes less historical background than Meltzer's Columbus and the World Around Him (Watts, 1990), but nonetheless provides all of the salient information about Columbus's life. --Phyllis Graves, Creekwood Middle School, Kingwood, TXCopyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
