Item - Voyage with Columbus

This is a fairly well-written book, but it bothers me on two levels. First of all, it's not very interesting in terms of gameplay; there aren't many choices, and those that there are fail to be very thought-provoking and sometimes lack options that the reader would probably like to try. More seriously, I'm bothered by the book's portrayal of history. At this point, I believe that most historians would agree that Columbus wasn't much of a hero, especially in light of his foreign policy ("give me gold and I won't chop off important bits of your face"). In this book, though, he practically glows with shiny goodness, and the only violence in the story is committed by the sailors (common criminals) and the natives (ignorant savages). Perhaps 1986 was a little early for publishers to consider exposing young children to revisionist history, but they could have done a little better than this -- it makes me a bit ill. "You've had a chance to visit the past, to be part of one of the greatest events in history," indeed.

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