Marco Polo: Dangers and Visions

Children's Book and Media Review Volume 39 | Issue 10 Article 29 2018 Marco Polo: Dangers and Visions Ariel Woodbury Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cbmr BYU ScholarsArchive Citation Woodbury, Ariel (2018) "Marco Polo: Dangers and Visions," Children's Book and Media Review: Vol. 39 : Iss. 10 , Article 29. Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cbmr/vol39/iss10/29 This Book Review is brought to you for free and open access by the All Journals at BYU ScholarsArchive. It has been accepted for inclusion in Children's Book and Media Review by an authorized editor of BYU ScholarsArchive. For more information, please contact , . Woodbury: Marco Polo: Dangers and Visions Book Review Marco Polo: Dangers and Visions Author Marco Tabilio Illustrator Marco Tabilio Marco Polo, a political prisoner, dictates his adventures to his cellmate. They begin with Marco Polo’s long-lost father returning from his travels to the Great Khan. Marco, the last living member of his immediate family, is determined to join him. They depart to find Catholic delegates to bring back per the Great Khan’s instructions. The group encounters thieves and disease on their journey. Eventually, the delegates they had with them return to Europe. Marco’s tale continues to become more wild. Would anyone believe the incredible stories of moguls, madness, and visions? Pages The cartoons for this work are black-and-white illustrations with one additional rotating color. The characters are difficult to distinguish from one another, and context helps little since the majority of the book is people standing around talking. The author does a good job of giving Marco Polo’s story the appropriate amount of credence. For those looking for exciting adventures of ancient and fantastic travel, look elsewhere. This is more of a coming-of-age story with rather meta musings on storytellers and stories. The flow of the story is broken up by random, irrelevant, and unexplained “visions” from a variety of men. The reason for their inclusion is unclear, and they greatly distract from the story, making it even more complicated to try and read. The illustrations detract and confuse the reader, and the story the author wants to tell seems like it would have worked better with purely text. Year *Contains mild sexual content. Reviewer Ariel Woodbury Rating Cannot Recommend Level Intermediate 207 2017 Publisher Graphic Universe ISBN 9781512430691 Published by BYU ScholarsArchive, 2018 1  (...truncated)