From School Library Journal
Grade 5-7 - Art and history meld with entertaining and successful results. Trailtakes readers through American westward expansion, from the 1840s to the introduction of railroads. The second title discusses knighthood, the peasantry, war, deer hunting, and so on. Throughout each book, a painting complements the topic under discussion. Then, the image is taken apart bit by bit. For example, the French 15th-century painter Jean Fouquet's Death of Clothar I and the Division of His Kingdom illustrates a fortified city. The entire composition is shown, with the dying king easy to overlook. On the next spread, where that section of the painting is viewed as a separate entity, the dagger in Clothar's neck is apparent. In both of these oversized books, framed sidebars offer biographical information about the artists; time lines handily sum up the years covered and include black-and-white miniatures of the paintings. These unique, well-thought-out titles are good for reports, and browsers would enjoy them, too. - Anne Chapman Callaghan, Racine Public Library, WI Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
Reviewed with Alex Martin's Knights & Castles.Gr. 5-8. For years, scholars have examined old paintings seeking to learn more about historical times and places. These books from the Picture That series invite students to do the same, using pictures that represent late medieval life in Europe and nineteenth-century western expansion in the U.S. With a spacious format and excellent reproduction of art, the books introduce the paintings and talk about what they reveal before zooming in on distinctive details, which are enlarged and discussed in captions. In Knights, the first double-page spread of the section "On the Battlefield" discusses Paolo Uccello's painting The Battle of San Romano; the second spread focuses on small sections of the painting illustrating fifteenth-century armor, the crossbow, the mace, the battle horse, and hand-to-hand fighting. In The Trail West, the section called "A Sacred Festival" presents Kiowa artist Silver Horn's The Camp Circle--Measuring the Pole, followed by a spread explaining five details from the picture. Appendixes include a glossary, a time line, and lists of books and Internet sites. Recommended particularly for visual learners. Carolyn Phelan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Book Description
The Trail West focuses on the lives and adventures of the brave pioneers who headed West in search of a new life. It also explores the lives of the Native Americans already living there. Among the extraordinary artists who recorded these exploits are Benjamin Franklin Reinhardt, Winslow Homer, George Caleb Bingham, and George Catlin. Picture That is a unique history-through-art series in which 15 to 20 key works of art with child-friendly images illustrate and illuminate different aspects of everyday life at certain periods of history. The range of topics covered in each book includes family life and events; childhood and education; commercial and town life; agriculture and country living; homes, clothes, and fashion; food, festivals, and customs; travel and transportation; and war and punishment. Each work of art is displayed in its entirety with a general introduction to the subject matter, placing it in context and giving information about the period in which it was created. Carefully selected details of the work of art are enlarged to give the reader a close-up view, with captions that reveal fascinating and often unexpected facts.

About the Author
Alex Martin is a prolific writer of both fiction and nonfiction works. His adult novel The General Interruptor won the Betty Trask Prize in 1988, and he has written several children's novels including Zeus Perkins, Time Traveller (Hodder, 1998). He has selected and edited various fiction collections, including Modern Plays and Modern Novels (Prentice Hall/Phoenix 1995). His nonfiction books include Greece (Simple Guides, 1995) and Daily Life in the Holy Land at the Time of Jesus (Reader's Digest 1995).

FROM THE PUBLISHER

The Trail West focuses on the lives and adventures of the brave pioneers who headed West in search of a new life. It also explores the lives of the Native Americans already living there. Among the extraordinary artists who recorded these exploits are Benjamin Franklin Reinhardt, Winslow Homer, George Caleb Bingham, and George Catlin.

Picture That is a unique history-through-art series in which 15 to 20 key works of art with child-friendly images illustrate and illuminate different aspects of everyday life at certain periods of history. The range of topics covered in each book includes family life and events; childhood and education; commercial and town life; agriculture and country living; homes, clothes, and fashion; food, festivals, and customs; travel and transportation; and war and punishment. Each work of art is displayed in its entirety with a general introduction to the subject matter, placing it in context and giving information about the period in which it was created. Carefully selected details of the work of art are enlarged to give the reader a close-up view, with captions that reveal fascinating and often unexpected facts.

Author Biography: Alex Martin is a prolific writer of both fiction and nonfiction works. His adult novel The General Interruptor won the Betty Trask Prize in 1988, and he has written several children's novels including Zeus Perkins, Time Traveller (Hodder, 1998). He has selected and edited various fiction collections, including Modern Plays and Modern Novels (Prentice Hall/Phoenix 1995). His nonfiction books include Greece (Simple Guides, 1995) and Daily Life in the Holy Land at the Time of Jesus (Reader's Digest 1995).

FROM THE CRITICS

Children's Literature - Greg M. Romaneck

Imagine yourself living in the 1840's and en route to a new home in the relatively unexplored American West. Your journey to your new homestead would include great hazards and effort. If you were heading to the Far West you could spend six months traveling the over 1800 miles you have to cover. Much of that distance would be traveled on foot so that the oxen or horses that pull your wagon could actually survive the trip. In the end, if you and your family survived the migration, you would then have to expend an enormous amount of energy to build a new home, clear land, and plant crops. All in all, the journey west was one marked by both adventure and tremendous human suffering. Author Ellen Galford presents a truly unique perspective on this 19th century American emigration. This is a fascinating book that utilizes artwork from the 19th century to analyze the American saga of westward migration. Galford not only presents artwork but also highlights specific details of the selected paintings to show how people lived during those distant days. This results in a wonderful book. Youngsters who are interested in history, social studies, or art will find this a book they will treasure. 2005, Two-Can Publishing, Ages 10 to 14.

School Library Journal