Mayflower 1620: A New Look at a Pilgrim Voyage »

Plimoth Plantation and the National Geographic Society come together to tell the true story behind the legendary voyage of the Mayflower. A meticulously researched work, Mayflower 1620 offers children a compelling, fresh account of this much-told story.

Plimoth Plantation and the National Geographic Society come together to tell the true story behind the legendary voyage of the Mayflower. A meticulously researched work, Mayflower 1620 offers children a compelling, fresh account of this much-told story.

Vibrant photography of a rare reenactment using the Mayflower II leads readers imaginatively into the narrative. The vivid and informative text explores the story behind the exhibits at the living-history museum in Plymouth, Massachusetts. Primary sources record what the voyagers wore, what they ate, and telling details of their journey. First-person accounts reveal the hopes and dreams they carried. Readers share in the long hours at sea, and in the dangers faced after landfall. Extensive end notes, a map, a detailed chronology, and a bibliography round out the full story of the Mayflower.

Readers experience a new look at this seminal historical event through the eyes of those who now regularly inhabit the world of the pilgrims—the actors who interpret the Pilgrim Voyage. This eye-opening book teaches children the value of closely reexamining everything we think we know.

Carolyn Mott Ford - Children's Literature

The full-color photographs of a replica of the original Mayflower illustrating this book are striking. The photos were taken in the summer of 2001 when the Mayflower II sailed from Plymouth to Boston to recreate scenes from 1620. The glossy pictures may belie the difficulties of the journey the early settlers made about 400 years earlier, but they do add a great deal to the book itself. The authors attempt to do away with myth and strip away false illusions that Americans may have about the original trip and the people who dared to make such an uncomfortable and daring journey. The authors emphasize the problems created for the Wampanoag peoples who populated the area before the arrival of the Europeans. William Bradford, who sailed aboard the Mayflower and wrote of the trip, is one of the sources quoted. A map, chronology, and a one-page story about the Mayflower II are included. 2003, National Geographic Society,