'The Mayflower: The perilous voyage that changed the world' by Libby Romero is a beautifully illustrated non-fiction account of the real story of the Mayflower's famous crossing. Perfect for older elementary to use during unit studies and younger children will enjoy it as a read aloud.

While this is beautifully illustrated, it didn't meet my expectations for covering this topic. I will likely continue to recommend 1621: A New Look at Thanksgiving instead.

I requested this book because I am teaching my children about early American history this year. I was drawn into it by the art on the cover of the book and continued to enjoy every page's artwork. The information was written in a relatively concise manner while still being a decent enough amount of information to make sure that the reader can understand exactly what life was like for the Pilgrims who journeyed on the Mayflower. I was surprised to learn a few things about the journey that led to the Pilgrims being on the Mayflower. I was unaware that the exiled Puritans had returned to England in order to get a place on the ships to the US and that they had to get the King's permission.

At the end of the book the author discusses the Mayflower II. I also enjoyed that information as it was not something I knew anything about. I can't believe that they came to America 400 years ago this year. Our country has a short history but at the same time, 400 years is a long time. We have little in difference from the first settlers though. We still have issues getting along with those who hold different beliefs or who look different. We still fight for our rights to practice our own religions. And we still have huge feasts to celebrate the harvest, even though many of us no longer work as farmers.

I really appreciated being able to read The Mayflower and am hoping to share it with my children in the next month or so when we cover the Mayflower and Puritans in our homeschooling.

Hmmm... How to review a book that promises to "discover the real history behind the Mayflower" and then tells the same whitewashed history that we've had for eons? This picture book dips its toe in depicting some accuracy about the pilgrims' dealings with the Native people they encountered, but only in tiny doses. It mostly tells the story of Godly, brave people who endured terrible conditions on a crowded ship (all true) for two months before settling in America and being helped by friendly Indians. It doesn't mention facts like the reason "Squanto" spoke such good English was because he had been kidnapped and sold into slavery years before. It tells the "sad fate" of the Mayflower ship and of the deaths of some of the notable people on it soon after, but never mentions the sadder fate of the Wampanoags who helped them (including Squanto). The boat is treated with more empathy than the Wampanoags. The first Thanksgiving is depicted as a feast the Pilgrims put together and then welcomed 90 Wampanoags to join in with their gift of "five freshly killed deer."

There are little concessions to telling a more accurate story on occasion, but for the most part it is the same old "wonderful, brave white people came to America, found it mostly deserted, and were helped by noble Indians who taught them skills, gave them gifts, made alliances, and then stepped aside to fade away." Frankly, we already had that book -- in spades.

David Silverman, author of This Land Is Their Land: The Wampanoag Indians, Plymouth Colony, and the Troubled History of Thanksgiving, told Smithsonian Magazine, "I've had a great many conversations with Wampanoag people, in which they talk about how burdensome Thanksgiving is for them, particularly for their kids. Wampanoag adults have memories of being a kid during Thanksgiving season, sitting in school, feeling invisible and having to wade through the nonsense that teachers were shoveling their way. They felt like their people's history as they understood it was being misrepresented. They felt that not only their classes, but society in general was making light of historical trauma which weighs around their neck like a millstone."

From Frank James, who was asked in 1970 to address a celebratory dinner of the “American” descendants of the Pilgrims in Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1970 (His remarks were censored and he gave his speech instead in the shadow of a statue of Massasoit in Plymouth, which sparked a tradition for tribes to observe a National Day of Mourning each year on Thanksgiving.):

It is with mixed emotion that I stand here to share my thoughts. This is a time of celebration for you – celebrating an anniversary of a beginning for the white man in America. A time of looking back, of reflection. It is with a heavy heart that I look back upon what happened to my People...

We, the Wampanoag, welcomed you, the white man, with open arms, little knowing that it was the beginning of the end; that before 50 years were to pass, the Wampanoag would no longer be a free people...

Only ten years later, when the Puritans came, they treated the Wampanoag with even less kindness in converting the souls of the so-called “savages.” Although the Puritans were harsh to members of their own society, the Indian was pressed between stone slabs and hanged as quickly as any other “witch.”

And so down through the years there is record after record of Indian lands taken and, in token, reservations set up for him upon which to live. The Indian, having been stripped of his power, could only stand by and watch while the white man took his land and used it for his personal gain. This the Indian could not understand; for to him, land was survival, to farm, to hunt, to be enjoyed. It was not to be abused. We see incident after incident, where the white man sought to tame the “savage” and convert him to the Christian ways of life...

Although time has drained our culture, and our language is almost extinct, we the Wampanoags still walk the lands of Massachusetts. We may be fragmented, we may be confused. Many years have passed since we have been a people together. Our lands were invaded. We fought as hard to keep our land as you the whites did to take our land away from us. We were conquered, we became the American prisoners of war in many cases, and wards of the United States Government, until only recently.

Our spirit refuses to die. Yesterday we walked the woodland paths and sandy trails. Today we must walk the macadam highways and roads. We are uniting We’re standing not in our wigwams but in your concrete tent. We stand tall and proud, and before too many moons pass we’ll right the wrongs we have allowed to happen to us.

For links to learn more about the full history, see https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/27/opinion/thanksgiving-history-racism.html for info about the real first Thanksigiving, https://www.pri.org/stories/2014-11-17/native-americans-get-chance-tell-their-side-pilgrim-story for the real history of "Squanto," and https://www.tolatsga.org/wampa.html for Wapanoag history.

The book is well illustrated and does give a good basic depiction of the Pilgrims and why they came to America.

It is tricky to tell accurate history in a way that makes it child friendly. This one doesn't really try. I'm guessing most people will love it, maybe partly because of this.

I read a temporary digital ARC of this book for review.

Though this is a wonderfully illustrated attempt, it is an especially difficult book given the contemporary political climate. While the book leaves room to discuss minute details about the history of the Pilgrims, from their early move to Leiden to the presence of two dogs aboard the Mayflower, it neglects to discuss the colonization of the US, perpetuating the friendship narrative between Native peoples and English colonizers and upholding Thanksgiving as a positive holiday rather than acknowledging it as a day of mourning for Native peoples and a day that several institutions have started to distance themselves from or actively recognize as a day of violence. This all makes sense in the context of the Plimoth Plantation funding this book, but it also neglects how in the current moment, when statues of Christopher Columbus are being toppled and many feel an unprecedented urgency to reeducate themselves, many parents and educators want to recognize the violent history of the US and not uphold this history in the information they provide to their children. Though the book itself is beautifully drawn, it neglects truth for a narrative that is comfortable for the Plimoth Plantation rather than accurate and just.

I was thoroughly impressed with this book's ability to capture the experience of the Mayflower in a way that was a journey both visually and narratively. It begins in the late 1500’s and ends in 1620, touching on the legacy of the Mayflower. This book was stunning to read and presented historical information in an impressive and coherent way that would be enjoyable for readers of all ages! It is phenomenally illustrated and includes a glossary as well as an index for reference.