KEEP ON!: THE STORY OF MATTHEW HENSON, CO-DISCOVERER OF THE NORTH POLE BY DEBORAH HOPKINSON

This picture book tells the story of Matthew Henson, African American explorer. Working aboard a ship for several years around 1880, the young Henson learned many skills that would be useful years later, when he joined explorer Robert Peary on several Arctic expeditions. After enduring hardships, dangers, and several failed attempts, Peary and Henson, accompanied by four Inuit men, reached the vicinity of the North Pole in 1909. The main text conveys a good bit of information within a clearly written narrative that includes one dramatic rescue scene during the final expedition. Large in scale and often handsome, the broad, double-page drawings are enhanced with symbolic and decorative elements and tinted with washes. The heroic imagery in the pictures sometimes seems to lessen the explorers’ humanity, while the large-print quotes from Henson’s Negro Explorer at the North Pole (1912), which appear on many double-page spreads, have the opposite effect. A historical note, a time line, and a brief list of sources are appended. Hardcover 36 pages