Westward Ho! - Hardcover

Charlotte Foltz Jones is known for her informative nonfiction for children, including "Mistakes That Worked: 40 Familiar Inventions and How They Came to Be;" "Accidents May Happen;" "Fifty Inventions Discovered by Mistake;" and "Eat Your Words: A Fascinating Look at the Language of Food." She is also the author of "Yukon Gold: The Story of the Klondike Gold Rush," which School Library Journal called "a fascinating look at the Alaskan Gold Rush." While doing research for this book she traveled extensively throughout the western states to small museums, libraries, and parks. She lived in the American West, in Boulder, Colorado. Charlotte passed away in 2007.

Grade 6-10–Five thematic chapters discuss the search for the Northwest Passage, the exploration of the Louisiana Purchase territory, the mountain men and the fur trade, John C. Fremont's mapping excursions, and John Wesley Powell's surveys of the Grand Canyon. Jones opens each chapter with an explanation of why the exploration was important, followed by profiles of the men and descriptions of their journeys. John Colter, Jim Bridger, and Zebulon Pike will be familiar to most readers, while others, such as Robert Gray, Stephen Long, and Joseph Walker, are less well known. Jones is objective about her subjects, admiring their ambition, leadership, and survival skills, but also describing their weaknesses and the effects of American expansion on the Native Americans. Numerous maps of the areas and the expeditions are supplemented by reproductions of period portraits and illustrations. The chapter on Powell includes outstanding photos taken on one of his expeditions. There are also chapter notes and a separate bibliography for each explorer. The author's emphasis on each man's leadership and the details of his expeditions provides a different perspective than the standard biographical information found in collective biographies such as Patricia Calvert's Great Lives: The American Frontier (Atheneum, 1997) and Sherri Peel Taylor's Pioneers of the American West (Gale, 2002), making this book a solid choice for most collections.–Mary Mueller, Rolla Junior High School, MO
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