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The Impossible Voyage of Kon-Tiki

ebook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available

Combining history with culture, the ocean with exploration, and risk with triumph-this rich offering is the only picture book account of Thor Heyerdahl's world-famous Kon-Tiki expedition, during which he sailed a raft 5,000 miles from the coast of South America to the islands of the South Pacific. Author Deborah Kogan Ray clearly and succinctly sets up how Norwegian anthropologist Heyerdahl became convinced that ancient Peruvians arrived in the South Pacific via raft, why he wanted to re-create the voyage, and how he planned for it. She uses primary-source quotations on each spread to shore up the factual history of the events portrayed in the book. Her illustrations add emotion to this harrowing journey. From the Hardcover edition.

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    • The Horn Book

      November 1, 2015
      When he was still in college, the Norwegian anthropologist Thor Heyerdahl lived for a year on the Polynesian island of Fatu Hiva and became fascinated with a question: where did the Polynesian islanders come from? Stone carvings on the island resembled statues found in South America, indicating, perhaps, a connection between the Polynesian Tiki and the Incan god Kon-Tiki Viracocha. Though skeptics scoffed at Heyerdahl's idea (most scholars believed that Polynesia was originally settled from Asia), in 1947 he embarked on a 4,300-mile ocean voyage and proved that ancient Incan sailors could have reached the South Pacific by raft. In dramatic double-page watercolor spreads, Ray follows Heyerdahl and his five-man crew on their 101-day odyssey on a balsa-log raft. Emphasizing high-seas adventure over theory, the story will capture the imagination of young readers with the drama of flying fish, gale-force winds, giant waves, and, ultimately, the raft's fortuitous landing on an uninhabited Polynesian island. However, though the large-scale illustrations are visually appealing, they also limit the number of scenes in which to tell the story, and the long ocean voyage is over too quickly for young readers to get a true sense of the arduous quest. Back matter includes a more thorough discussion of anthropologists' theories of populations and migrations and notes that Heyerdahl was one of the first to warn of pollution in the oceans and to advocate for a green world. dean schneider

      (Copyright 2015 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

Formats

  • OverDrive Read
  • PDF ebook

Languages

  • English

Levels

  • Lexile® Measure:990
  • Text Difficulty:5-7

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