From: Hopkinson, Deborah <Deborah.Hopkinson>
Date: Thu, 5 Jul 2007 10:54:46 -0700

One of my favorite travel books for young readers is Rhoda Blumberg's Shipwrecked, The True Adventures of a Japanese Boy, which tells the story of Manjiro Nakahama, the first Japanese person to visit America. James Rumford's Traveling Man: The Journey of Ibn Battuta is also a great book. There are many books I think teens would like, but probably no one reads them anymore. Some, like Vivienne De Watteville's Speak to the Earth, Wanderings and Reflections among Elephants and Mountains, are probably out of print.

I fell in love with travel literature as a young teen, and over the years have written stories about Isabella Bird, Matthew Henson, John Wesley Powell, and others. Right now, in fact, I'm in the midst of writing a middle grade novel set in a travel bookshop -- and I will definitely be including excerpts of some favorite travel narratives!

Deborah Hopkinson Director of Foundation Relations Oregon State University
Received on Thu 05 Jul 2007 12:54:46 PM CDT