Battuta, a Moroccan boy, became a legendary traveler, journeying some seventy-five thousand miles by foot, camel, and ship. Rumford incorporates Battuta's own words, set down for him by a scribe, and condenses the adventure into a multilayered picture book. The sumptuous paintings add absorbing detail. This blend of romantic adventure/biography/history is a fine account of wanderlust, offering tantalizing glimpses of the medieval world. Glos.

"Traveling—it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller." Ibn Battuta should know: this North African scholar traveled from Gibraltar to Beijing, suffering many a severe reversal of fortune and covering an astonishing 75,000 miles, before settling down as an old man to dictate his adventures. Rumford ( Island-Below-the-Star , 1998, etc.), no stranger to faraway places himself, presents a precis of those adventures in a radically abbreviated but tantalizing adaptation of Ibn Battuta's travelogue, lines of which follow a wandering road that threads its way past phrases and city names rendered in sinuous Arabic calligraphy (translated nearby or at the end) and unpretentious watercolors of the journeyer at rest or passing through wide landscapes. "Suddenly I was hit by an arrow. Even though I was wounded, I helped my companions fight off the rebels, and we continued on to Delhi. By the time we reached the sultan's palace, my wound had healed . . . " Rumford closes with a map, a source note, and a list of names and places. It's an awe-inspiring tale, evocatively presented, and perfect for armchair travelers. (Picture book/nonfiction. 8-12)

Gr 3-6 "In the days when the earth was flat and Jerusalem was the center of the world, there was a boy named Ibn Battuta." So begins this introduction to the journeys of this historically important but probably little-known, 14th-century Muslim figure. Born in Morocco and raised as a scholar, he began his 29 years of travel in 1325 when, "At twenty-one, he decided to go to Mecca as a pilgrim." He went on through Africa, across the steppes of Asia, into India and China, and back to Morocco where "he told his story to the Moroccan court secretary Ibn Juzayy, who wrote it down in Arabic." Rumford's simply written adaptation is often surprisingly eloquent. For example, Ibn Battuta comments on his voyage: "Travelingit leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller." "Travelingit had captured my heart, and now my heart was calling me home." On each page, a portion of the text appears within its own bright white narrow road crossing elegantly bordered illustrations that shine with generous amounts of gold, red, and deep blue. This text also flows into and out of larger frames. The artist adorns many of these illustrations with Arabic and Chinese calligraphy, providing translations for the longer phrases at the end of the book. A few maps are included and they are executed with the same attention to presentation. A glossary of names, places, and important words provides essential information in an accessible format. Simply put, this is a beautifully crafted work that will undoubtedly spark interest and encourage further study. Alicia Eames, New York City Public Schools