I really enjoyed reading this book for many reasons. One thing that I liked about this book were the photographs. The author included one picture in each chapter that was related to the information in that chapter. I thought that these photographs enhanced the story by allowing the reader to have a visual representation of what they are reading about. These photos and the captions underneath them were very engaging to me as I read this book. They held my attention and allowed me to gain a deeper understanding of these historic people and events. For example, I really liked the portraits of the black explorers, such as James Beckwourth. I really appreciated that I was able to put a face to the name of the different men I was reading about. Another thing that I liked about this book was the way in which it was written. I like that the story was written in chronological order. The author goes through the different events in order and does a great job transitioning between chapters. This made the story very easy to both follow and understand. I also like the way the author incorporated the different African American explorers according to the time period and order of events. It helps the reader see the bigger picture and understand the time period as a whole. I believe the message of this story is that these African American explorers played a vital role in many explorations and in helping to discover new worlds. ( )