1. Voyage with Columbus
Author: Seymour V. Reit
Illustrators: Steve Fastner (cover), José Gonzalez Navaroo (interior)
First Published: October, 1986
ISBN: 0-553-15431-1
Length: 80 pages (plus instructions and data)
Number of Endings: 1
Plot Summary: You travel back to Columbus' famous voyage in order to
discover the ultimate fate of his flagship, the Santa María.
Translation: Spanish
My Thoughts: 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.
2. The Legend of Hiawatha
Author: Carol Gaskin
Illustrators: John Palencar (cover), José Ortiz (interior)
First Published: November, 1986
ISBN: 0-553-15450-8
Length: 80 pages (plus instructions and data)
Number of Endings: 1
Plot Summary: You must witness the founding of the Iroquois League
of Five Nations and bring back a wampum bead to prove it.
Translation: Spanish
My Thoughts: It is from this book that I learned, quite early on,
that a young time traveler armed only with a pumpkin can easily defeat a
powerful Mohawk warrior. Interesting. I also learned that the series editor
wasn't paying a lot of attention with regard to redundancy -- this book
features a short trip to the Boston Tea Party very similar to a scene in the
previous adventure! These bits of silliness aside, though, it's not a bad
book. The choices are more interesting than usual for the series, and while
I wouldn't want to vouch for its historical accuracy without doing quite a
bit of research first, it does manage to throw some interesting tidbits about
Iroquois life into its storyline. It also has a more fantastic feel than I
would have expected -- if you feel that these books are too dry and
reality-based (which I don't... but some might), this could well be a good
one to try.
3. The First Settlers
Author: Carol Gaskin
Illustrators: Steve Fastner (cover), John Pierard and Alex Nino (interior)
First Published: March, 1987
ISBN: 0-553-15483-4
Length: 80 pages (plus instructions and data)
Number of Endings: 1
Plot Summary: You visit the Pilgrims in an effort to meet Miles
Standish and participate in the first Thanksgiving.
Translation: Spanish
My Thoughts: This book, the second in a row from Carol Gaskin, is
rather more mundane than the previous one. It's a fairly straightforward
presentation of a fairly well-known bit of history. Things are spiced up a
little thanks to the fairly frequent dropping of names of historical figures
(this book could certainly be a starting point for considerable research) and
some twists of the plot effectively present the difficulty of the Mayflower's
voyage and smoothly convey interesting facts (such as, for example, the
origin of the phrase "flash in the pan"). The biggest problem with
the book is that one of its main objectives is to meet Miles Standish, but
while he's certainly present in the book, he never really comes across as an
interesting or defined character; he's just a jolly red-faced guy who almost
compulsively shoots at birds. This is almost certainly because subtle
characterization wasn't considered a priority for this series' target age
group, but it's disappointing nonetheless. It seems that an underestimation
(in my opinion) of the abilities of the audience is the main reason why this
series is so uniformly inferior to the Time
Machine books from which it spun off.
4. The Amazing Ben Franklin
Author: Peter Lerangis
Illustrators: Steve Fastner (cover), José Ortiz (interior)
First Published: May, 1987
ISBN: 0-553-15504-0
Length: 80 pages (plus instructions and data)
Number of Endings: 1
Plot Summary: You must meet Ben Franklin and learn the details of his
famous kite experiment.
Translation: Spanish
My Thoughts: Interestingly enough, this book manages to avoid
exactly the problems I complained about when reviewing the previous one. It
is about Ben Franklin, so it makes a real effort to make him an interesting
character. As a result, it's both fun and engaging, with each encounter with
Franklin being different and surprising. It also helps that the goal of
finding out details about Franklin's experiment makes the mission interesting
even though the subject matter is familiar, and since the writing isn't at
all condescending, the book feels is if it's a slightly shorter entry in the
Time Machine series. This is easily the best book
in the series up to this point, and it's a quick and pleasant read.
5. Paul Revere and the Boston Tea Party
Author: Marc Kornblatt
Illustrator: Ernie Colón
First Published: September, 1987
ISBN: 0-553-15529-6
Length: 80 pages (plus instructions and data)
Number of Endings: 1
Plot Summary: Your mission is to visit the Boston Tea Party and
retrieve one of the tomahawks used during the event.
My Thoughts: After being featured as a minor event in the first two
books of this series, it's perhaps a little strange that the Boston Tea Party
ended up getting a book of its own... But, redundancy aside, this is a
decent adventure; the historical events and characters portrayed aren't
glorified to the same distressing extent as those in much of the rest of the
series, and everything is quite well balanced considering the target age
group. The biggest flaw in the book is a single continuity error; at one
point, you meet a character who recognizes you from an event which occurred
earlier in time. The problem is that you only actually become involved in
this event if you choose to go back and investigate it! In any case, this
problem aside, I found the book enjoyable, and I am the proud owner of an
autographed
copy.
6. George Washington and the Constitution
Authors: Ellen Frankel and Robin Stevenson
Illustrators: Fernando Fernandez (cover), Frédéric Lère and Alex Nino (interior)
First Published: November, 1987
ISBN: 0-553-15543-1
Length: 80 pages (plus instructions and data)
Number of Endings: 1
Plot Summary: You must travel back in time to learn about George
Washington and the Constitutional Convention.
My Thoughts: This is a rather disappointing book. The actual story
feels like propaganda and the game aspect is almost entirely linear. The
series doesn't end on quite as bad a note as that on which it started, but
this is definitely nothing wonderful. It's a shame that these books
couldn't, for the most part, live up to the standards of the main Time Machine series.
