About the Author:
Peter Lourie is the author of many books for young people, including Arctic Thaw: The People of the Whale in a Changing Climate and Hidden World of the Aztec. He lives in Weybridge, Vermont.
From School Library Journal:
Grade 3-6. Readers are invited along on a canoe trip down what remains of the Erie Canal to explore the history of its construction and economic impact. Lourie starts his journey in Buffalo and ends three weeks later in the Champlain Canal; he paddles through locks, past quiet vistas, and alongside busy highways. The chapters are sandwiched between a prologue that explains why the Erie Canal was built and why the author wanted to explore it by canoe, and an epilogue asking questions about how the canal will fit into the future. Lourie's enthusiastic narrative is punctuated by commentary about what he sees along the way. He includes decisions he had to make regarding his canoe and technical information about the lock system, how the canal amended over the years, and the impact it had on the people involved in its construction. The leaps from historical information to observations about traffic jams can be rather challenging for less-than-able readers to navigate. Archival black-and-white photos, drawings, excerpts from songs about the Erie Canal, and the author's full-color photographs greatly aid in appreciating its size and history. A good choice for students interested in transportation, Western expansion, or exploration.?Joan Soulliere, formerly at Wenham Public Library, MA
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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