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This book is exactly what the title implies – short biographies of explorers in the hundred year span between Henry the Navigator and Magellan. In addition to the explorers named in the title, Fritz includes Bartholomew Diaz, Christopher Columbus, Vasco da Gama, Pedro Alvares Cabral, John Cabot, Amerigo Vespucci, Juan Ponce de Leon, and Vasco Nunez de Balboa.

I didn't enjoy this book nearly as well as the other two books by Fritz that I've read this month. The witty, somewhat humorous tone of the first two is largely missing from this book. The difference may be the succinctness necessary for profiling ten explorers in a single book. This book also has the unnumbered endnotes without textual cues that I found so annoying in Where Do You Think You're Going, Christopher Columbus?. If I had started reading Jean Fritz's books here, I might not have been tempted to pick up another one. ( )

This book serves as a guide for learning about the most prominent explorers from 1421-1521. It is broken into chapters which are mini-biographies of the explorers. Jean Fritz has written quite a few books on history and always adds interesting facts to make the biographies more appealing to read. For example, I did not know that Columbus died the year before the New World began to be called America after his friend, Amerigo Vespucci. Each chapter has a few illustrations in black and white to complement the text. If the publisher had used color illustrations, the book would have been more appealing. The end of the book does not have a glossary of terms or suggested readings and websites. It does have the author's Notes and an extensive bibliography. This book could be used in upper elementary through high school. I read the majority of the book, but skimmed a few chapters. ( )

Around the World in a Hundred Years is a book about the time period of 1421-1522. This book is full of maps, and other pictures. The book discusses ten explorers and their adventures. Some of the explorers discussed in the book are-John Cabot, Christopher Columbus, and Ponce de Leon. This book allows the students to gain a lot of information in a central area. The time period being discussed in the book is the Renaissance.