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Les fabuleux voyages de Marco Polo
Pour découvrir les tribulations de Marco Polo, de la Turquie à son arrivée en Chine où il devient le conseiller de l'empereur Koubilaï, en passant par l'Arménie et le Moyen Orient.
54 pages, Hardcover
First published September 1, 2008
29 people are currently reading
251 people want to read
About the author
Demi
181 books179 followersDemi (September 2, 1942) born Charlotte Dumaresq Hunt, is an award-winning children’s book author and illustrator. During her career she has published over 300 titles.
Demi was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She is the great-grand daughter of the American painter William Morris Hunt, and the great-grand niece of architect Richard Morris Hunt. Demi earned her nickname as a young child when her father started calling her demi because she was half the size of her sister.
She studied art at Instituto Allende, Mexico, and with Sister Corita at the Immaculate Heart College in Los Angeles. She was a Fulbright scholar at the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, India where she received her Master’s degree.
Demi is known for her biographies for spiritual figures including Buddha, Krishna, Lao Tzu, Jesus, Mary (mother of Jesus), Muhammad, Rumi, Francis of Assisi, Gandhi, and the Dalai Lama.
In 1990, Demi and her husband Tze-si “Jesse” Huang represented the United States at the First Children’s International Book Conference in Beijing.
Source: Wikipedia
Demi was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She is the great-grand daughter of the American painter William Morris Hunt, and the great-grand niece of architect Richard Morris Hunt. Demi earned her nickname as a young child when her father started calling her demi because she was half the size of her sister.
She studied art at Instituto Allende, Mexico, and with Sister Corita at the Immaculate Heart College in Los Angeles. She was a Fulbright scholar at the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, India where she received her Master’s degree.
Demi is known for her biographies for spiritual figures including Buddha, Krishna, Lao Tzu, Jesus, Mary (mother of Jesus), Muhammad, Rumi, Francis of Assisi, Gandhi, and the Dalai Lama.
In 1990, Demi and her husband Tze-si “Jesse” Huang represented the United States at the First Children’s International Book Conference in Beijing.
Source: Wikipedia
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 52 reviews
November 1, 2021
This is a lovely picture story book with beautiful illustrations and the story of Marco Polo and his travels. I read it to my 8-year-old to help him understand the Marco Polo biography by George Makepeace Towle.
May 7, 2019
I read this aloud for school. All three kids gave it 5 stars. They liked how much Marco Polo learned during his explorations.
February 9, 2014
"This elegant, scholarly picture-book biography brings the explorer's fantastic journey to life." -School Library Journal. This is another beautiful Demi book. She covers the Marco Polo story so beautifully, moving from Venice to China on the Silk Road,and than back to Venice,half a lifetime later,a journey full of wonders,danger, and adventures. After reading Demi's book, I really want to read the classic "The Travels of Marco Polo", which became a medieval best-seller, and copies were translated by hand into all the European languages. Still one of the most famous books ever!
October 25, 2021
I usually don’t include these types of children’s books in my reading log, but these 60-70 page books about historical figures from this author have been so wonderful! So informative, super engaging, and beautifully written and illustrated. Highly recommend this author!
March 30, 2020
Beautiful illustrations!! Very enjoyable read aloud book for young and old alike.
May 20, 2010
Gives a fascinating account of Marco Polo's journey to China and all the wonders he saw along the way. The book style is too choppy to match the glorious elegance of the magnificent illustrations, and I would have liked more information in the text as well. Marco Polo's fantastic account was, according to Demi's story, often not believed, and the meticulously paintings lend credibility to the story. The richly gilded illustrations are wonderful--I just wanted the text to be wonderful, too, instead of--okay. Well worth sharing with children, though, for whom this may be their only exposure to the great explorer.
hiatus
May 16, 2013I'm not surprised that I love this book. Demi's illustrations are so unique to me and provide so much to look at. While at this time this is much longer than what I'd read at one sitting with my girls, it's fun to come back and pick it up again and let everything soak in. We are planning to homeschool and after reading this one on Marco Polo, I went on to find several on the bargain section of Amazon and just doubled our Demi section in our personal home library. I think I'm going to have to try to own them all.
March 17, 2011
I was surprised by how much my children liked this book. It's a retelling of Marco Polo's adventures with gorgeous pictures. I thought we would read it once and be done, but I was asked to read it over and over again.
August 27, 2015
Visually stunning book that recounts Marco Polo's 24-year expedition to China. Appropriate for grades 4-7.
May 4, 2023
It's a bit simple and repetitive, but so are many incantations: often those of the best types of magic.
June 3, 2018
This was a very interesting and informative book. It did take over an hour to read, so plan for that if you’re doing a read-aloud like us.
April 10, 2024
This is for an older child that has an attention span. 5 or more.
What a story. Demi did her research. Marco Polo spent much of his life traveling. He met Kubla Khan and impressed the Emperor of China at that time so much that Kubla sent Marco all over China doing business for him. He was almost too good. The Khan wouldn't let him leave for some time.
The interesting part of this story to me, and there are many, is that when Marco got home, it had been so long that relatives didn't know who they were. They thought they were all dead. Then, Marco was telling his stories and they laughed at him. No one believed that the world was that large, big and varied. His book was read as a wonderful fantasy book for years until people began to figure out that this was all true. How interesting. Our world is so vast and different that it really can be thought of as a fantasy book at times. Well, I suppose not much anymore. The world is a much smaller place now.
The artwork is wonderful in this one. She uses a pink in a few frames that is stunning. It's so rose, I just love it. I marveled at the page. As Marco goes from Italy through the Arab world into China, the artwork changes with the cultures. It's so well done.
I think kids are going to be wowed by Marco's journey. It's truly amazing. This is a great book and kids loving adventure, will love this.
What a story. Demi did her research. Marco Polo spent much of his life traveling. He met Kubla Khan and impressed the Emperor of China at that time so much that Kubla sent Marco all over China doing business for him. He was almost too good. The Khan wouldn't let him leave for some time.
The interesting part of this story to me, and there are many, is that when Marco got home, it had been so long that relatives didn't know who they were. They thought they were all dead. Then, Marco was telling his stories and they laughed at him. No one believed that the world was that large, big and varied. His book was read as a wonderful fantasy book for years until people began to figure out that this was all true. How interesting. Our world is so vast and different that it really can be thought of as a fantasy book at times. Well, I suppose not much anymore. The world is a much smaller place now.
The artwork is wonderful in this one. She uses a pink in a few frames that is stunning. It's so rose, I just love it. I marveled at the page. As Marco goes from Italy through the Arab world into China, the artwork changes with the cultures. It's so well done.
I think kids are going to be wowed by Marco's journey. It's truly amazing. This is a great book and kids loving adventure, will love this.
March 28, 2021
This is a really beautifully illustrated biography for children by Demi. Marco Polo is known as the greatest explorer that ever lived. He travelled 33,000 miles by land and sea from Italy, across Turkey, Armenia, the Middle East, Afghanistan, and the Taklimakan Desert, to reach China.
This book tells the amazing story of Marco Polo's real-life journey and all the different cultures, inventions, treasure and religions that he discovered along his way. It is a long non-fiction booked packed with useful facts and information about his life and the people he met.
Demi is an amazing artist. She has illustrated the book using Chinese inks and gold decorations, Chinese and Indian embroidery and Italian, Arabian and Persian designs on silk which make the book so interesting to look at as well as showing you some of the wonderful art and scenes which Marco Polo would have seen for the first time.
We have another story book by Demi (one grain of rice) which is just as well illustrated. I think I would definitely try reading anything that she has written and illustrated.
This book tells the amazing story of Marco Polo's real-life journey and all the different cultures, inventions, treasure and religions that he discovered along his way. It is a long non-fiction booked packed with useful facts and information about his life and the people he met.
Demi is an amazing artist. She has illustrated the book using Chinese inks and gold decorations, Chinese and Indian embroidery and Italian, Arabian and Persian designs on silk which make the book so interesting to look at as well as showing you some of the wonderful art and scenes which Marco Polo would have seen for the first time.
We have another story book by Demi (one grain of rice) which is just as well illustrated. I think I would definitely try reading anything that she has written and illustrated.
November 16, 2023
In Demi's usual style, this book is beautifully illustrated and quite thorough and informative for a children's book. My throat is rebelling and scratchy after reading it aloud in one sitting to my kids, on the heels of another book. And they enjoyed it tremendously, but were getting a bit restless by the end. So in retrospect, I think we could have split the book into two readings. Regardless, it is fascinating and includes a summary of Marco Polo's extended travels from Venice to China, and eventually back again, with some details of his life after that point. We found the details of his journey to be very intriguing and hearing the difficulty of it helped my kids understand why Christopher Columbus was so determined to find a sea route that was quicker, easier, and safer, in relation to the Silk Road. We especially enjoyed learning the story of how his book came to be, the disbelief he was met with, and his "famous last words" when a priest not so subtly accused him of lying and tried to get him to confess as much. This is a lovely read enjoyed by children and adults alike!
September 22, 2017
the writing does not begin to do justice to the the illustrations. The illustrations are a full five stars, but the writing.... it's just too bad.
Even so, it's almost worth keeping the whole book for the illuminated map in the back.
*specifically, there's a real issue with the way this narrator slips in and out of questioning Polo's journals- so, for instance, seeing noah's arc on a mountain is presented as fact, but unicorns are corrected to rhinos. If there was no correction, and this was just Polo's interpretation, it would be fine. If it was all presented as questionable, that would be fine. But the back and forth is problematic at best
Even so, it's almost worth keeping the whole book for the illuminated map in the back.
*specifically, there's a real issue with the way this narrator slips in and out of questioning Polo's journals- so, for instance, seeing noah's arc on a mountain is presented as fact, but unicorns are corrected to rhinos. If there was no correction, and this was just Polo's interpretation, it would be fine. If it was all presented as questionable, that would be fine. But the back and forth is problematic at best
September 17, 2020
Marco Polo was an early 14th century explorer who chronicled his adventures, with the help of an author named Rusticello, in a book called The Travels of Marco Polo. Nearly 200 years after he saw the world, his book finally made it mainstream, the Silk Road had long been destroyed and these stories inspired the likes of Christopher Columbus and other Europeans to seek their riches to find the lands of spices and silk in Asia. Fascinating historical account in a pint-sized format.
February 6, 2020
I wish I could rate the illustrations separately. We were both mesmerized by them. But this was not a one-sitting book for my student. He lost interest and rolled off the couch and scratched the dog.
March 31, 2022
Well Demi has the gift of Illustrating, You will love it just for the pictures alone. the story gave many fascinating details about his life in the shortest possible story. The adventure just keeps going. The map was wonderful I kept looking at it for each new part of the story.
February 7, 2018
The amazing life of the first world traveler, chronicled with exquisitely detailed illustrations and well-crafted vignettes of Marco Millions’ marvelous adventures.
April 7, 2019
Sans frontières
June 21, 2019
This biography of Marco Polo gave us an interesting and clear account of his life.
March 30, 2020
Easy children's version. Still with beautiful language and pictures. It is a bit long for the smaller kids . I had to read it aloud over a few days for my 6 yr old.
February 10, 2021
Excellent illustrations and very detailed account of Marco Polo's life for a picture book. Made a good supplement for Story of the World vol 2.
April 30, 2021
Gorgeous informative introduction for kids. Want to read the real Travels now!
September 23, 2021
Absolutely beautiful book by Demi; a lavishly illustrated biography of Marco Polo I read to my littles (ages 7 & 8) for our homeschool History unit on the Silk Road . . .
August 7, 2025
Incredible illustrations, love the map and the endpapers, the story is long, but accessible.
March 20, 2017
Fun quick read
everything you need to know in less than 10 minutes
As a fan of the show yes it's worth reading as to understand some of the story in more detail.
everything you need to know in less than 10 minutes
As a fan of the show yes it's worth reading as to understand some of the story in more detail.
Read
April 18, 2016Marco Polo by Demi is one of her many picture book biographies. Demi is the author and illustrator, her work received many awards among them the Christopher Award which recognizes individuals who make a positive difference. Demi use Chinese inks and gold overlays. Inside jacket page is adorned with Persian tapestry design with gold, blues and rust. The Author's note page is trimmed with camel borders each with a Persian blanket every one a different design. Demi goes in great detail with the travels of Marco Polo, his father Niccolo, and uncle Maffeo were traders who traveled to China, Constantinople, and Persia. Marco did not his father till he fifteen. The Polos were home for two years and it was time to make the journey to China to see the great Kublai Khan. Now is was time for Marco to go with his father and uncle, they set sail with all of the finery of the west, gifts, holy oil, and letter from Pope Gregory for the Emperor Kublai Khan. Marco Polo recorded all of the astonishing adventures. This is an authentic biographical fiction based Demi's research of Marco Polo. This book is perfect for grades 4,5,6,.
April 26, 2013
We read this book as part of our homeschool studies of the Middle Ages. There are parts that are funny and interesting, giving a real flavor of who Marco Polo was and the wild experiences he had. And then there are several chunks of the book that read like a catalog of people & places, as though the author was just trying to make sure that every place Marco Polo ever visited was included in the story. I can work with that. It makes for excellent map work, and, if you pull out an extra map to work with alongside the book, it's a great opportunity for a student to follow along on the map while reading the story.
The illustrations are really wonderful, and some time should be taken just to explore them as works of art, apart from the story.
The illustrations are really wonderful, and some time should be taken just to explore them as works of art, apart from the story.
March 18, 2016
Inside Cover:
Many people say Marco Polo was the greatest explorer that ever lived, traveling 33,000 miles by land and sea from Venice, Italy, to what today is known as Beijing, China.
His famous book, "The Travels of Marco Polo," indicates that he was a man of extraordinary bravery, brilliance, and strength. With his uncle and father, he traveled across Turkey, Armenia, the Middle East, the rugged mountains of Afghanistan, and the infernally hot Taklimakan Desert before finally reaching China in 1275.
Welcomed by the great emperor Kublai Khan, Marco Polo was amazed by the inventions, riches, and religious tolerance of the Khan's kingdom, where Marco remained for the next twenty years.
Many people say Marco Polo was the greatest explorer that ever lived, traveling 33,000 miles by land and sea from Venice, Italy, to what today is known as Beijing, China.
His famous book, "The Travels of Marco Polo," indicates that he was a man of extraordinary bravery, brilliance, and strength. With his uncle and father, he traveled across Turkey, Armenia, the Middle East, the rugged mountains of Afghanistan, and the infernally hot Taklimakan Desert before finally reaching China in 1275.
Welcomed by the great emperor Kublai Khan, Marco Polo was amazed by the inventions, riches, and religious tolerance of the Khan's kingdom, where Marco remained for the next twenty years.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 52 reviews