First reading: A pretty dull introduction to a few notable explorers in history.
Second reading: I had actually forgotten that we read this a year and a half ago. We liked it better this time, for sure, perhaps due to being 9 instead of 7 1/2, but we also had some context since we are studying exploration this month. I will admit that since we just read a whole book about Columbus, we skipped the few pages on him. We did get into a good discussion this time on failure. Some of these explorers didn't set out to achieve what they had hoped, but their expeditions still taught much, and opened the door to more learning and exploration. Sometimes we have to get things wrong in order to figure them out.