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1 review for:
Sea Cows, Shamans, and Scurvy: Alaska's First Naturalist: Georg Wilhelm Steller
Ann Arnold
3.33 AVERAGE
1 review for:
Sea Cows, Shamans, and Scurvy: Alaska's First Naturalist: Georg Wilhelm Steller
Ann Arnold
3.33 AVERAGE
Sooner or later, Hollywood will discover Georg Stoeller and scientific biopics will then supplant comic-book retreads in summertime cinema. I hope. So here's your chance to be the cool one who knew the story before the movie.
Arnold's brief YA biography makes use of information that has become available in recent decades, making this a valuable addition to the tiny Steller section of your local library. My own young-reader's-Steller-shelf holds only two earlier biographies: Steller of the North, by Ann and Myron Sutton (1961) and Touched with Fire (1960, winner of the Thomas Alva Edison Foundation Children's Book Award). The two earlier books make more of Steller's prickly personality in his conflicts with Bering and his Russian officers than Arnold does; Sea Cows, Shamans, and Scurvy focuses more on Steller's accomplishments as a scientist than on the personal heroism that the other books highlight. All three clearly portray a man who should be more widely known and revered.
I personally like the way this book is arranged: the biography sticks to Steller's life, while the extensive notes fill out the context. There is much important information in the notes section (it takes up a large portion of the book), but it is tangential to the narrative and putting it in a separate section seems appropriate to me. Readers who usually skip the notes may miss out on some good stuff here. One weakness, as another reviewer indicates, is that the maps are odd and sketchy. The geography of Siberia and the Bering Sea are not likely familiar to every reader, and a good overall endpaper map would have been nice.
Arnold's brief YA biography makes use of information that has become available in recent decades, making this a valuable addition to the tiny Steller section of your local library. My own young-reader's-Steller-shelf holds only two earlier biographies: Steller of the North, by Ann and Myron Sutton (1961) and Touched with Fire (1960, winner of the Thomas Alva Edison Foundation Children's Book Award). The two earlier books make more of Steller's prickly personality in his conflicts with Bering and his Russian officers than Arnold does; Sea Cows, Shamans, and Scurvy focuses more on Steller's accomplishments as a scientist than on the personal heroism that the other books highlight. All three clearly portray a man who should be more widely known and revered.
I personally like the way this book is arranged: the biography sticks to Steller's life, while the extensive notes fill out the context. There is much important information in the notes section (it takes up a large portion of the book), but it is tangential to the narrative and putting it in a separate section seems appropriate to me. Readers who usually skip the notes may miss out on some good stuff here. One weakness, as another reviewer indicates, is that the maps are odd and sketchy. The geography of Siberia and the Bering Sea are not likely familiar to every reader, and a good overall endpaper map would have been nice.