Reviewed with Don Wells' The Silk Road.Gr. 5-8. Exciting historical adventures will draw readers to these titles in the Great Journeys series, and the magazine-type format looks inviting, with lots of crisp color photos and boxed screens breaking up the text. Unfortunately, there's no coherent narrative to present the big picture, and the text is disconnected and disorganized, jumping back and forth in time. For example, readers will find a sidebar about the makeup of Columbus' crew next to a contemporary photo of sea ice melting in the Arctic. Even so, the history will fascinate, whether the focus is on the spread of religions and cultures along the Silk Road or on murder and mutiny during the arduous search for the Northwest Passage. The detailed time line and Web sites in each volume will be useful.
