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CBC Showcase: Nonfiction Picture Books
Caldecott Medalist and two-time Caldecott Honor winner Uri Shulevitz has created a portal to transport readers to Europe, Asia, and the Middle East through the eyes of a traveler who followed his dream and opened others' eyes to the majesty and splendor of other cultures, telling the little-known story of a real-life medieval figure who was determined to better understand and experience firsthand the cultures of the then-known world.
written and illustrated by Uri Shulevitz
Visiting lands unknown and unfamiliar to most people in the 1100s, Benjamin, a Jewish resident of northern Spain, set out to learn more about such places as Rome, Constantinople, Baghdad, and Jerusalem, returning to his homeland fourteen years later to share what he had witnessed with the people of his town. In elaborate paintings resplendent with jewel-toned colors, Uri Shulevitz tells Benjamin's story-all the more unusual because he was a Jewish traveler exploring a hundred years before Marco Polo. Chronicling this journey, Mr. Shulevitz expresses the dangers involved in such a voyage, and recounts the "most amazing places [Benjamin] saw and the most fascinating stories [he] heard." Mr. Shulevitz's art fills each page with vibrant imagery of lands that remain unknown to many, more than eight hundred years after Benjamin began his travels.
Ages 8 and up
ISBN: 0-374-37754-5
Price: $17.00
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
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