Magellan: Over the Edge of the World - OPTIONAL

Bergreen, Laurence Magellan: Over the Edge of the World, 200 pages.  NON-FICTION Roaring Brook Press (Macmillan), 2017. $20. Content: Language: G; Mature Content: G; Violence: PG-13.  

In the early 1500’s, Ferdinand Magellan, persuades the Spanish King Charles to approve a journey around the world to find a faster way to reach the profitable Spice Islands.  Although Magellan was Portuguese, he couldn’t find funding from his own country, so he took Portugal’s secrets to Spain and captained a five ship armada.  Most of the time Magellan’s men were trying to commit mutiny, not always trusting Ferdinand because he was Portuguese, and they also had trouble with weather and bad food supplies.  In the end, only one ship completes the journey around the world and most of the 400 men lose their lives, including Magellan (this information is offered in the first pages of the book's prologue). 

Obviously the story of Magellan is interesting and the facts are well organized in this book.  The history lover in me loved the information in this book, but I’m not sure there are many young adults who would stick through the dry beginning, large amount of character names and places and the bland cover.  This book would be better used if the teacher read it and gave a synopsis of the events, but it’s too dense to maintain the interest of most teens.   

MS, HS – OPTIONAL.  Reviewer, C. Peterson.