Tuesday, January 12, 2010

The Dangerous Voyage by Gilbert Morris

The Dangerous Voyage, by Gilbert Morris, is book #1 in The Time Navigators fiction series, written especially for preteens (ages 11-14). In the series Danny and Dixie travel back in time and experience "unforgettable moments in history". In The Dangerous Voyage they are transported back to 1620 in England and they explore the Mayflower.

I found this book on my book shelf last week and decided to re-read it because it fit the requirements for a couple of reading challenges I am participating in - the First in a Series Challenge and also the Young Readers Challenge

I remember buying the book for my children to read after I had read many of the books in Morris' House of Winslow series.  I really enjoyed Winslow's writing and was thrilled to check out his writing for children. Also, as a homeschooling mother, I was always looking to squeeze all the learning I could out of a book and the fact that these books had an historical element to them made them more appealing.

If you are interested in seeing the books in each series you can check out Gilbert Morris' page on Fantastic Fiction. I think that both of these series can be used as additional reading for pleasure in an American history learning unit, the Time Navigator series for younger readers and the House of Winslow series for older readers. Children could be encouraged to record mentions of historical events and people and use this as jump of points for further study. While reading the book this time around I was wondering how it compared to the first book in the House of Winslow series and I wished I had it on my shelves to do the comparing.

I am not a fan of the whole sci-fiction travel in time concept, but I do see how it can be fun for children and it can help them to see things from a different perspective.

I already quoted one passage for the book in my Admit You Need Him post and I'd like to end with another one:
"Are you sure you want the truth?" Dixie asked. "Or do you just want to prove what you already have decided to believe?"