The Plant Hunters

True Stories of Their Daring Adventures to the Far Corners of the Earth

Anita Silvey

Melanie Kroupa Books

Download Image Anita Silvey The Plant Hunters
Buy it now

Available Formats

Book

Driven by an all-consuming passion, the plant hunters traveled around the world, facing challenges at every turn: tropical illnesses, extreme terrain, and dangerous animals. They battled piranhas, tigers, and vampire bats. Even the plants themselves could be lethal! But these intrepid eighteenth- and nineteenth-century explorers were determined to find and collect new and unusual specimens, no matter what the cost. Then they tried to transport the plants—and themselves—home alive. Creating an important legacy in science, medicine, and agriculture, the plant hunters still inspire the scientific and environmental work of contemporary plant enthusiasts.

Working from primary sources—journals, letters, and notes from the field—Anita Silvey introduces us to these daring adventurers and scientists. She takes readers into the heart of their expeditions to then-uncharted places such as the Amazon basin, China, and India. As she brings a colorful cast of characters to life, she shows what motivated these Indiana Jones–type heroes. In The Plant Hunters, science, history, and adventure have been interwoven to tell a largely forgotten—yet fascinating—story.

Connect with the Author

Anita Silvey

Official Sites

Related Links

Sign Up for
Author Updates

Macmillan Newsletter

Sign up to receive information about new books, author events, and special offers.

Sign up now

Reviews

Praise for The Plant Hunters

“…a lovely presentation of amazing adventures.”--School Library Journal

 

“…successfully infuse[s] the image of plant collection with a measure of excitement many readers will not expect.”--BCCB

 

"Combining bits of botanical history and exploration with accounts of adventurers, this unusual book introduces European and North American plant hunters..."--Booklist

 

“…smoothly written, smartly paced and filled with exciting tales of risk taking and derring-do.”--Kirkus Reviews

In the Press

THE PLANT HUNTERS by Anita Silvey | Kirkus Book Reviews
Read the Kirkus Review of THE PLANT HUNTERS True Stories of Their Daring Adventures to the Far Corners of the Earth. Greed! Obsession! A passion for nature and travel! All these and more have driven intrepid explorers to search for exotic plants around the globe for centuries.
- Kirkus Reviews

Reviews from Goodreads

Back

About the Author

Anita Silvey

Anita Silvey is among today's foremost authorities on children's books. She is the creator of both the online and the forthcoming print editions of the Children’s Book-a-Day Almanac, and teaches courses in the Graduate School of Library and Information Science and the Children’s Literature Program at Simmons College. A frequent contributor to NPR, Ms. Silvey lectures around the country on children’s and young adult books. Her recent books include Henry Knox: Bookseller, Soldier, Patriot, I’ll Pass for Your Comrade: Women Soldiers in the Civil War, and Everything I Need to Know I Learned from a Children’s Book. She lives near Boston, Massachusetts.

Anita Silvey

Back

Buy the Book

Available Formats and Book Details

The Plant Hunters
True Stories of Their Daring Adventures to the Far Corners of the Earth
Anita Silvey

Hardcover

Hardcover
Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
Melanie Kroupa Books
April 2012
Hardcover
ISBN: 9780374309084
ISBN10: 0374309086
Middle-Grade Nonfiction
8 x 10 inches, 96 pages, Full color art
Age Range: 8 to 12
Grade Range: 3 to 7 Information for Librarians

Information for Librarians


Lexile: 1170LL

$19.99
Buy
Back

From The Publisher

Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)

Latest on Facebook

Latest on Twitter

Back

{ About }

{ Services }

{ Store }

{ Publishers }

Children's

Macmillan Global

© 2013 Macmillan