Looking for Marco Polo

by Alan Armstrong

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  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  I’m grateful for help received from the late G.R.D. Bridson of the Hunt Institute, Pittsburgh; Mr. William T. Brown; Ms. Leslie Button, associate director for collection services, W.E.B. Du Bois Library, University of Massachusetts, Amherst; Constance J. Covington, MD; Mr. Johnny Chung of Shanghai Far East Expeditions, Inc.; Ms. Abigail Dallmann; Dr. Walter S. Denny, professor of Islamic art, University of Massachusetts, Amherst; Ms. Kristen Depken, then editorial assistant, Random House Children’s Books; Ms. Gina Douglas, executive officer, archivist and librarian emeritus, the Linnean Society of London; Mr. Jonathan Flaccus; Dr. Carmella Franklin, director, American Academy in Rome; Dr. Michael Gasster, professor of history emeritus, Rutgers University; Dr. Patrick Geary, 2006 resident scholar, American Academy in Rome; Ms. Meika Hashimoto, editorial assistant, Random House, New York; Dr. Robert L. Herbert, professor emeritus of humanities, Mount Holyoke College; Ms. Marcie Hermansader; Mrs. Mary Hill; Mr. Leonid Lerman; Dr. Joseph Mandell; Dr. Anna Marguerite McCann; Mr. James McCormick; Ms. Faith P. Moeckel; Dr. Michèle Mulcahey, Department of Medieval History, School of History, University of St. Andrews; Ms. Christine Pagnani, Academic Arrangements Abroad; Ms. Diane H. Schafer, Metropolitan Museum of Art; Dr. Nathan Sivin, professor emeritus of Chinese studies and the history of science, University of Pennsylvania; Dr. Ross Terrill, research associate, Fairbanks Center for Asian Research, Harvard University; and the wonderful research librarians at the Neilson Library, Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Alan Armstrong went to China to see what Marco Polo might have seen, flying in one day the distance it took Marco three years to go by galley, camel, yak, horse, and foot, nearly at the cost of his life. Inspired by Polo’s hunger for exploration and his gift for describing what he met, Armstrong wrote Looking for Marco Polo, his third book for children. His f
irst book, Whittington, was awarded a Newbery Honor in 2006. He lives with his wife, Martha, a painter, in Massachusetts.

  This is a work of fiction. All incidents and dialogue, and all characters with

  the exception of some well-known historical and public figures, are products

  of the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Where real-life

  historical or public figures appear, the situations, incidents, and dialogues

  concerning those persons are entirely fictional and are not intended to depict

  actual events or to change the entirely fictional nature of the work. In all other

  respects, any resemblance to persons living or dead is entirely coincidental.

  Text copyright © 2009 by Alan Armstrong

  Illustrations copyright © 2009 by Tim Jessell

  All rights reserved.

  Published in the United States by Random House Children’s Books,

  a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

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  Random House, Inc.

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  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Armstrong, Alan W.

  Looking for Marco Polo/by Alan Armstrong; illustrated by Tim Jessell. — 1st ed.

  p. cm.

  Summary: When they lose touch with his father’s Gobi Desert expedition,

  eleven-year-old Mark accompanies his mother to Venice, Italy, and there,

  while waiting for news of his father, learns about the legendary Marco Polo

  and his adventures in the Far East.

  eISBN: 978-0-375-89298-1

  1. Polo, Marco, 1254–1323?—Juvenile fiction. [1. Polo, Marco,

  1254–1323?—Fiction. 2. Venice (Italy)—Fiction. 3. Voyages and

  travels—Fiction. 4. Italy—Fiction.] I. Jessell, Tim, ill. II. Title.

  PZ7.A73352Lo 2009 [Fic]—dc22 2008008815

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