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For thousands of years, traders and travelers journeyed the Silk Road. Through the narrative and full-color pictures, the physical challenges and risks the travelers took, what they traded along the Silk Road, what ideas and languages were exchanged, and the kinds of people who lived along this often-dangerous thoroughfare, are revealed.

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'The Silk Route: 7,000 Miles of History' is the story of how silk was produced in China and delivered 7,000 miles away to the Byzantine Empire. The nonfictional account is narrated by author John Major, who holds a Ph.D. in Asian studies from Harvard and beautifully illustrated by Stephen Fieser.
In the back of the book, there is a section labeled "A Closer Look" and it delves a bit deeper into a dozen locations and concepts discussed in the text. The story is told beginning in China, passing through the major stops on the arduous journey, and ending in Byzantium. The author does not provide an abundance of detail as I suppose this book was geared toward younger readers so to make up for this, there is additional information in the back of the book for those who wish to have more information. The story is easy to follow along, but with such foreign words as 'Taklamakan' and 'Dunhuang' I felt there should have been phonetic pronunciations included to aid readers and storytellers alike. ( )

As a caravan of precious silk makes its way across central Asia to Europe, its traders have to contend with harsh climates, bandit attacks, and dangerous terrain. Certain features, such as the writing of the word "silk" in the language of every country the traders travel across and the earth-toned watercolor illustrations add to the realism of the story.The artist plays a lot with movement and drapery, coming in for a close-up of two veiled women inspecting a bolt of cloth or zooming out to take in a bird's-eye view of a marketplace or cityscape. The double-page spread of bandits attacking the caravan in Samarkand epitomizes this style, getting right in the thick of the action with flashing swords and emotional faces.

The Silk Route is arranged geographically, with each new page bearing the name of the next city on the road. The dedication page carries a map of the entire route, showing all the stops along the way. Starting in Chang'an, the capital city of Tang Dynasty China, merchants load camels with bolts of silk to trade. The silk changes hands several times as it wends its way across central Asia, traversing deserts, mountains, and, finally, the Mediterranean Sea.

For some children, the vocabulary and references to so many different places and peoples may become confusing, especially since the author doesn't specifically define all of them. He often provides contextual clues as to the definition of words like "yurt" and "porcelain", but all the new material can become overwhelming for some kids. Perhaps this book was written for an older audience than it ended up being marketed to. With this in mind, I probably wouldn't recommend The Silk Route for kids under 2nd or 3rd grade, even though children of this age probably aren't being read to nearly as much as their younger counterparts and won't be able to puzzle it out on their own yet. ( )