Review by Booklist Review
Gr. 2-4, younger for reading aloud. In 1911, a Yale professor in search of a lost Inca city was led to the site of Machu Picchu by local Indians. In this lavishly illustrated picture book, Lewin traces Professor Bingham's steps through the tangled mountain jungle to his exciting discovery. The language is graceful and uncomplicated, weaving in bits of background history along the way, and Lewin builds suspense at just the right pace: They came to a grand stone staircase. Where could this lead? What else was here? But it's the artwork that will really attract attention. Full-page watercolor spreads of the stunning vistas and thick forests contrast with dark, intimate views of Bingham inside homes and walking along walled city streets, searching for leads. A map of Peru and suggested further reading lists would have been welcome additions, but Lewin includes comprehensive notes that explain the excavation of Machu Picchu, as well as the primary sources he consulted. An exciting, eye-catching story for early elementary social studies units. --Gillian Engberg Copyright 2003 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
With lush and detailed watercolors, Lewin guides readers high into the almost otherworldly mountains of Peru. In retracing the steps of Hiram Bingham, who in 1911 searched for the lost city of Vilcapampa and discovered the 500-year-old Incan ruins of Machu Picchu, he balances a compelling visual chronicle with sure storytelling. The narrative alternates between Bingham's treacherous trail into the dense, snake-infested jungle and the premonitions of a Quechua boy who has dreamed of "a tall stranger carrying a small black box" (the box is Bingham's camera). The professor's quest begins 60 miles south in Cusco, where a gorgeous, sun-dappled ancient wall may excite readers' interest in archeology: "Right here was the most beautiful stonework he had ever seen-huge stones cut so perfectly that not even a razor blade could be slipped between them. The Inca had no iron tools to carve them, no wheel or draft animals to move them.... How had the Inca built them!" A sense of intrigue permeates another scene in a dark cantina, where Bingham confers with locals, their faces unseen. Wearing an Indiana Jones-style fedora, Bingham hunches over intently, his face half-shadowed in the bright sun. A perilous trek and a fortuitous meeting with the boy in the jungle lead Bingham to the ruins, the significance of which are explained in a helpful afterword. A rewarding journey. Ages 5-9. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 4-7-In 1911, Hiram Bingham and a team of archaeologists went in search of Vilcapampa, the legendary lost city of the Inca. In this picture-book account of that expedition, Lewin relates Bingham's journey from Cusco to the jungles of Peru and from there, led by a local child, to mountaintop ruins. The site wasn't Vilcapampa, but rather an isolated, impenetrable ancient city of temples, dwellings, plazas, and terraces connected by steep staircases. Distinguished double-page watercolor paintings capture the grandeur of the location, the monumental solidity of the Inca stonework, and the surrounding jungle. The final pages continue the story with information on the work involved in preparing the ruins for excavation and some initial findings and include a useful pronunciation guide to Spanish and Quechua words. Follow this title with Elizabeth Mann's Machu Picchu (Mikaya, 2000) for background on the people who built this city, and to learn what later excavations yielded.-Daryl Grabarek, School Library Journal (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
(Primary, Intermediate) Detailed watercolors follow the quest of archaeologist Hiram Bingham, who, in his 1911 search for the legendary Inca city of Vilcapampa, discovered ""a place even more amazing""--Machu Picchu. Lewin draws on Bingham's journal for this account of the grueling expedition to the Andes. A fictional frame opens the narrative--a Peruvian boy has a dream about ""a tall stranger carrying a black box""--but the small figure of the brightly dressed boy against the sweeping purple mountains establishes the grand scale of the setting, and the text quickly moves on to Bingham's search for guides in the capital city of Cusco. Eventually Bingham and the boy meet up, and in the appended author's note we learn that just such a boy led the explorer to the overgrown ruins of ""Machu Picchu, a city lost in time, a city lost in the clouds."" An endnote details the subsequent excavation of the site; however, readers are not told what became of the fabled Vilcapampa or much about what researchers have learned about the building of Machu Picchu. Lewin also includes citations for two sources by Bingham and a pronunciation guide to the few Spanish and Quechua words in the book. The tortuous journey richly rewarded is a good adventure story, satisfying on its own; Lewin's evocative glimpse of Machu Picchu will complement other more substantive materials about the place, its builders, and its inhabitants. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Magnificent watercolor landscapes and mystical hooey form the high and low points, respectively, of this tale of archaeologist Hiram Bingham's discovery of the Incan city of Machu Picchu in 1911. Drawing heavily, according to an author's note and bibliography, on Bingham's own accounts of the expedition, Lewin creates in Bingham a protagonist consumed by wonder and driven by determination to discover a rumored lost Incan city. As he pushes further and further into the Andes, the full-bleed illustrations open up a glorious world of rushing rivers and jungled mountains, until he uncovers, with the aid of the indigenous farmers, Machu Picchu itself. Unfortunately, the narrative relies on invented dialogue and, even worse, a fictional character, based on a boy mentioned in Bingham's accounts, who foresees Bingham's arrival in a dream. These sequences stretch credulity past the breaking point and beg the question, why doesn't the author trust the spirit of discovery enough to allow it to carry readers along? The story ends abruptly, with the discovery of the lost city; a further note describes the subsequent excavation. (Picture book/nonfiction. 5-9) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
