A detailed account of Marco Polo and his travels. Describes the perils and challenges in crossing the continent into Asia. Describes the cities they visited and being in Kublai Khan's luxurious court, and how his countrymen did not believe his stories when he returned home!! Maps and illustrations help bring the book to life.

Beautiful paintings and sketches by Cyrus LeRoy Baldridge with an introduction by Pearl S. Buck. ( )

Baldridge's drawings are lush and exotic. ( )

This is a book that older children can use for school projects where they need more detail. It's about 50 pages long with a lot of text, and wonderful "archival, period artwork." There's a lot of information, and the book is frank about the fact that some scholars don't think Marco Polo was entirely truthful in his original writings (although the author falls on the side of believing most of it). Very, very interesting. ( )

This was an interesting book about the travels of Marco Polo. The illustrations by Bagram Ibatoulline are beautiful. This book was labled a junior biography, but it is at a seven or eighth grade reading level. Russell Freedman does a good job of explaining the debate as to the truthfulness of his original manuscript (which has been lost) and whether Marco Polo actually made it to China. ( )