1492

Altogether now: "In fourteen hundred and ninety two, Columbus sailed the ocean blue." But while Christopher Columbus was in Spain preparing for his historic voyage other things were happening in both the Old World and the New World. That is the subject matter for "1492: The Year of the New World," written and illustrated by Piero Ventura. Using imaginary characters based on historical records, Ventura takes young readers on a journey through the major countries of Europe and the native lands of America. The journey begins in the snowy stretches of the principality of Moscow, recently freed from the control of the Tartars, and the important trading center of Novgorod, just conquered, from which goods are shipped to the Baltic Sea and then on to the German city of Lubeck. Ventura continues, introducing us to a young Flemish trader, an English innkeeper's son, a French theology student, a veteran Turkish cavalryman, a Portuguese cabin boy, and the maid of honor to a Spanish princess, before following Columbus on his trip across the Atlantic Ocean. In the New World readers are introduced to the ancient civilizations that had existed undisturbed for thousands of years. There are the Tainos of the Caribbean, the people Columbus first called "Indians," and the advances civilizations of the Aztecs, the Maya, and the Inca. Moving north we see the Buffalo hunters of the Great Plains, the Hopi villages in the Southwest, and the Algonquin tribes on the lakes and forests of the Northeast. Each spread is accompanied by detailed pen and watercolor artwork that gives you a sense of what life was like for people in these places. Young readers should look carefully because they can find all sorts of telling details, some of which parents and teachers would find rather inappropriate, but that students will enjoy (e.g., check out the little boy standing by the water in England or the Ican slave girls). In the back of the book Ventura has charts containing the important voyages of discover after 1492, some important dates in European history 1493-1558, and important dates in Italian Renaissance art. Ventura also provides quick looks at what was happening in the Orient that Columbus thought he was sailing to and what happened to Europe after Columbus (re)discovered the New World, as well as the conquests of Mexico and Peru, and the introduction of the horse to the New World. All things considered, "1492: The Year of the New World" gives you readers a nice introduction to the what was happening on both sides of the Atlantic as Columbus changed the course of both western civilization and native American culture. Reflecting contemporary concerns Ventura emphasizes the tragic fate of the natives peoples of North, Central, and South America by ending with a quotation from Eagle Wing that eloquently speaks of how the natural wonders of the Mississippi and Niagara Falls "will murmur our pain" and offers the eternal elegy: "Our only sin ws this: we had what