On the Trail of Lewis and Clark - Hardcover

Lourie, Peter

9781563979361: On the Trail of Lewis and Clark

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1563979365 ISBN 13: 9781563979361

Publisher: Boyds Mills Press, 2002

In 1804, Lewis and Clark and a band of adventurers called the Corps of Discovery embarked on one of the great expeditions in history. President Thomas Jefferson purchased from France an 800,000-square-mile region called the Louisiana Territory--which doubled the size of the United Sates--then commissioned Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to explore it. Two hundred years later, Peter Lourie, along with three friends, follows Lewis and Clarks' path up the Missouri River from Omaha, Nebraska to Three Forks, Montana, where they meet the headwaters of the Missouri River. In between, there are dramatic sights: the Missouri Plateau, where Lewis saw thousands of buffalo; the gravesite of Sitting Bull; the breathtaking White Cliffs of Montana, and much more. Through a lively text and beautiful photographs, Peter Lourie invites us to travel up the Missouri River and imagine what Lewis and Clark might have seen as they ventured into this new world.

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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 5-7-Lourie and three friends set out in a riverboat, and further upstream a canoe, to follow Lewis and Clark's route on the Missouri River from near Omaha, NE, to its headwaters in Montana. The author moves back and forth between excerpts from the journals of Lewis and Clark and commentary on the Corps of Discovery Expedition and his own party's adventures, leading to some disjointedness, and, possibly, a lack of clarity for young readers. One digression about Sitting Bull, prompted by his gravesite overlooking the river, seems particularly out of place in an account woven around the Lewis and Clark journey. There is an interesting recounting of meeting a former tribal chairman at the Fort Peck Reservation, which brings to life the contemporary, if not historical, relationship of the Assiniboin with the river. An episode with a hapless Bureau of Land Management river guide, who runs out of gas and lacks a spare fuse when the boat's electrical system blows, results in a long night's trek cross country for the modern-day explorers. When Lourie writes, "We began to lose all hope," one is reminded of the "undaunted courage" of the original Corps of Discovery. The attractive layout incorporates clear, full-color photos of sites, artifacts, and the modern-day travelers and some black-and-white reproductions. An additional purchase.
Nancy Collins-Warner, Neill Public Library, Pullman, WA
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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