Marco Polo For Kids

The Far East comes alive in this activity book centered on Marco Polo’s journey to China from Venice along the 13th-century Silk Road. Kids will join Marco as he travels by caravan through vast deserts and over steep mountain ranges, stopping in exotic cities and humble villages, until at last he arrives at the palace of the Kublai Khan. Woven throughout the tale are 21 activities that highlight the diverse cultures Marco encountered along the way. Activities include making a mythical map, creating a mosaic, fun with Feng Shui, making paper, and putting on a wayang-kulit (shadow-puppet play). Just for fun, kids will learn a few words of Turkish, Persian, Mongol, Hindi, and Chinese. A complete resource section with magnificent museums and their Web sites invites kids to embark on their own expedition of discovery.

Marco Polo recounts his voyage to China where he served the emperor Kublai Khan for seventeen years before returning to Venice.

Marco Polo was seventeen when he set out for China . . . and forty-one when he came back! More than seven hundred years ago, Marco Polo traveled from the medieval city of Venice to the fabled kingdom of the great Kublai Khan, seeing new sights and riches that no Westerner had ever before witnessed. But did Marco Polo experience the things he wrote about . . . or was it all made-up? Young readers are presented with the facts in this entertaining, highly readable Who Was . . . ? biography with black-and-white artwork by John O?Brien.

Marco Polo, the first European to travel to China and return to write about his adventures, was born in Venice in 1254. Marco's father had left on a journey to Asia before the boy was born. Marco did not see his father and uncle, Niccolo and Maffeo Polo, until fifteen years later. In 1271 the three Polos left Venice and headed for the court of Kublai Khan in eastern China. The journey took them more than three years—they arrived in 1275. Marco Polo became a favorite of the Great Khan, and was sent on important missions all over the Mongol Empire. Marco and his father and uncle served Kublai Khan for 17 years. When they returned to Venice in 1295, Marco became the captain of a merchant ship and was captured and imprisoned in Genoa. While in prison he and another prisoner who was a writer of romances wrote the story of Marco Polo's adventures.

If you want to experience that perfect day, whether you are young or old, Venice, Italy is the place to be. The people of Venice, Italy are warm, cosmopolitan, honest, artistic, and full of music and fun. This is why Penelope Dyan and John D. Weigand traveled to Venice, Italy to write and photograph Marco Polo Was Here! This is another book to add to your collection of Weigand s and Dyan s travel guides for kids; and it is clear they know what they are doing, and they know what kids like. Your child does not need to grumble about going with you on yet another trip (even if it is to one of the most beautiful places in the entire world) if your child is able to participate in the planning process. Make sure your child a part of things. Your child can go on this trip vicariously (by reading this book) or go to Venice, Italy for real and enjoy and see these wonderful people and wonderful places of interest and fun! Penelope Dyan is an attorney, writer and former teacher of grades K-12 and an award winning teen and children s book author and illustrator. John D. Weigand is a television engineer and photographer with a special talent for capturing that perfect photo; and while this book is meant for kids, it will be a welcome addition to your coffee table book collection. If you want to see even MORE of Venice, Italy, watch for Bellissima s release of John D. Weigand s Just Venice! This will be another perfect compliment to your coffee table book collection, and it will be a beautiful supplement to Marco Polo Was Here! A Kid s Guide To Venice, because it WILL BE Just Venice! through and through. Until then. . . Ciao!

We all ?know? that Marco Polo went to China, served Ghengis Khan for many years, and returned to Italy with the recipes for pasta and ice cream. But Frances Wood, head of the Chinese Department at the British Library, argues that Marco Polo not only never went to China, he probably never even made it past the Black Sea, where his family conducted business as merchants.Marco Polo's travels from Venice to the exotic and distant East, and his epic book describing his extraordinary adventures, A Description of the World, ranks among the most famous and influential books ever published. In this fascinating piece of historical detection, marking the 700th anniversary of Polo's journey, Frances Wood questions whether Marco Polo ever reached the country he so vividly described. Why, in his romantic and seemingly detailed account, is there no mention of such fundamentals of Chinese life as tea, foot-binding, or even the Great Wall? Did he really bring back pasta and ice cream to Italy? And why, given China's extensive and even obsessive record-keeping, is there no mention of Marco Polo anywhere in the archives?Sure to spark controversy, Did Marco Polo Go to China? tries to solve these and other inconsistencies by carefully examining the Polo family history, Marco Polo's activities as a merchant, the preparation of his book, and the imperial Chinese records. The result is a lucid and readable look at medieval European and Chinese history, and the characters and events that shaped this extraordinary and enduring myth.

A biography of the thirteenth-century Venetian explorer whose book about his travels across Asia and work for Kubla Khan helped to launch the Age of Exploration.

With stunning, impressionistic illustrations, Dieter Wiesmller takes young readers on a delightful journey of discovery. Marco Monkey grew up in a land of steamy tropical rainforests. Polo Penguin had never left the frosty cold ice pack of Antarctica. But the two adventurers share a curiosity about the world around them that leads them on a globe-spanning expedition that explores both the wonders of the Earth around them and the very nature of friendship itself.

Can one book really change the world? A handwritten manuscript by Marco Polo in 1288 did. Polo, son of a wealthy Italian merchant, wrote about his incredible experiences traveling to China with his father and uncle on a trade expedition, and also about his adventures as an envoy of Kublai Khan, the ruler of most of China. Polo’s book became a bestseller in Europe in the fourteenth century. It was copied over and over by hand, translated into fourteen languages, and became one of the first books to be printed after the invention of moveable type. The tales inspired others—including Christopher Columbus in the fifteenth century—to seek new sea routes for trade. Polo’s adventures—and manuscript—are one of world history’s most pivotal moments.

Since Else Holmelund Minarik's beloved Little Bear made his debut more than fifty years ago, generations of children have grown up with Little Bear by their side, delighting in his charming adventures and curious spirit. Now Little Bear returns to the world of I Can Read in Little Bear and the Marco Polo—a story filled with imagination, warmth, and tender memories that Grandfather shares with Little Bear.