Evans Bissonette

Explorer! Evans Bissonette

Explorer! is historical fiction. That is, the dialogue is fictional, but events and many of the people mentioned were real. Certainly, Walter Wellman was a real person who had vision, determination, and leadership-all traits needed during his attempts to be the first to reach the North Pole. When that goal could no longer be realized, he regrouped his forces and set his sights on being the first to fly across the Atlantic. He conceived this idea right after Beloit, in an aircraft that was little more than a kite with an engine, succeeded in being the first to fly from Calais, France, to Dover, England-a distance of about thirty-five miles. Explorer follows in the wake of The Ice Age Saga trilogy-The Shaman's Song, The Sojourner's Tale, and Crooked Foot. Similarities between The Ice Age trilogy and Explorer! are due to the fact that they are all written as action-adventure stories and are meant to entertain readers of all ages.