Anyone with an interest in archaeology or in liars and braggarts will be drawn in by this slim biography of the hyper-imaginative Schliemann. — Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books (starred review)
From Newbery Medal-winning author Laura Amy Schlitz comes an engaging illustrated biography of Heinrich Schliemann, a nineteenth-century archaeologist who most believe did find the ancient city of Troy. This engrossing tale paints a portrait of contradictions — a man at once stingy and lavishly generous, a scholar both shrewd and reckless, a speaker of twenty-two languages and a man with a funny habit of taking liberties with the truth. Laura Amy Schlitz and Robert Byrd open a discussion about how history sometimes comes to be written, and how it sometimes needs to be changed. Back matter includes source notes and a bibliography.Anyone with an interest in archaeology or in liars and braggarts will be drawn in by this slim biography of the hyperimaginative Schliemann. —Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books (starred review)
A colorful narrative. . . . Byrd’s detailed drawings extend the dramatic story. —Booklist
Schlitz's chatty text is frank with the reader about the difficulties of parsing fact from Schliemann's fiction, developing her protagonist. . . . Byrd's wry illustrations match the breeziness of the text and add verve to the whole. —Kirkus Reviews
Well-written. . . . Should give budding archaeologists plenty to discuss. —Sacramento Bee
Pictures, timelines and maps make this book even more fascinating and fun. —Washington Post
In Schlitz’s carefully researched, sophisticated, and far more amusing account, Schliemann’s obsessions and his inability to distinguish fact from fiction bring him into focus as the monomaniac he was. —Natural History