A review by kim_j_dare
Raleigh's Page by Alan Armstrong

3.0

Gr 4-7-In 1584 Plymouth, 11-year-old Andrew has heard his teacher tell tales of the riches and adventure to be found in the New World. When his father, a childhood friend of Walter Raleigh, calls in a favor, Raleigh agrees to take Andrew on as a page. Filled with excitement, the boy travels to London to reside at Durham House, where he will learn about court life. His training is not limited to the gentlemanly arts, however: as Raleigh grows to trust him more, he involves Andrew in various intrigues to obtain the most recent and thorough maps of the New World and to convince Queen Elizabeth I that England cannot afford to leave the territory to the Spanish. Almost a year later, Andrew is sailing toward America as secretary to Thomas Harriot, the mathematician and astronomer who manages Raleigh's accounts. The months that he spends in Virginia are full of adventure and discovery. Armstrong realistically portrays the bigotry of the times, not only in the way that many of the explorers demean the Native Americans, but also in the intolerance toward Catholicism in England and toward Protestantism in Spain. Armstrong's meticulous research, combined with Jessell's lively black-and-white illustrations, bring to life the people who shaped our nation's earliest history. Pair this with Elise Carbone's Blood on the River: James Town 1607 (Viking, 2006): both books will have adventure lovers on the edge of their seats, and they'll realize that America's history is anything but boring.-Kim Dare, Fairfax County Public Schools, VA Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information.