The Incredible yet True Adventures of Alexander von Humboldt

I have never heard of Alexander von Humboldt. I did not know there was an explorer that spent so much time in the Americas, studying the landscape, and the botany and the people.

This is amazing book, a sort of picture book, but with far more words than a picture book, of a man who was a contemporary of Thomas Jefferson. A man who had wealth and decided to spend it all on exploration. Working for years, collecting specimens, and then returning to Europe to write about them.
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He opened up the world of the Americas to the Europeans, which could be a bad thing, but he gathered information, which was a good thing.

Well written, fascinating story of this early European explorer. Recommended.

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.

This book is a unique mix of storytelling and interesting illustrations about Alexander von Humboldt. It was fun to read about his life which felt fresh even though he lived in the 1800's. The illustrations really stood out to me in this book as something that I think elevated this book above other biographies I've read.

An illustrated middle grade biography of Baron Alexander Von Humboldt, famous Prussian explorer of the Americas in the early 1800s.

Humboldt was a daring explorer, who with his friend, Aimé Bonpland, a botanist, explored and mapped parts of South America in modern day Venezuela, Ecuador, Columbia, and Peru. They then spent time in Cuba and Mexico, before venturing up to say hello to the U.S. President Thomas Jefferson and speak about their travels for crowds before returning to Europe five years after they initially left. Humboldt had been a mining scientist in Prussia before his adventuring days, and he had a deep fascination with volcanoes. They think he knew more about them than anyone else during his time period. He and Aimé also likely set records for the highest mountain climb of the time, as well as discovering plants and animals previously unknown to Europeans. Their talks in Europe were extremely popular. I was pleased to discover that Humboldt had a surprisingly and refreshingly respectful attitude towards the indigenous cultures he came across and was outspoken against slavery before it was popular to do so. The book mentions how he brought up the issue with Jefferson. (I just realized he was a contemporary of William Wilberforce and did a quick little search and found out that the two did communicate about abolitionist efforts.) After an exploration trip across Russia for the Czar, Humboldt spent most of his remaining years writing what we’d now call popular science books (I’m guessing he wrote one of the first of that genre). This was a fascinating read that isn’t all that long. Humboldt is a refreshing explorer to study for how he respected the people and cultures he came across, and his boundless energy and things he did are engaging reading. Recommended to biography fans, adventure fans, and curious readers.

Notes on content: Some of the illustrations show indigenous people in their traditional dress (which is very little by Western standards), but the impressionistic art style makes the practical nudity not detailed and not scandalous.

I received an ARC of this title from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Humboldt’s life brought vibrantly to color exposing the depth and brilliance of his extraordinary life. Inspiration and awe awaits within the pages of this masterfully designed book.

This book was beautifully illustrated and captured the attention and imagination of my two middle grade boys who aspire to study biology. My naturalist and ecology loving 11 year old loved that aspect of his life and my push the boundaries son loved the explorer aspect.

Beautifully illustrated children's non-fiction! It's a bit long, but for someone interested in discovering more about von Humboldt, it's a great combination of text and pictures.

I learned about von Humboldt last year and I am glad I can use this book to introduce this larger-than-life figure to my students.