A True History of the Great Admiral
by the One Who Sailed with him

Not since he drew "Ferdinand the Bull" has the depictor of that botanical non-belligerent been in better form. Aurelio, the parrot who made Columbus what he is today, has a personality as definite and as delightful as Ferdinand. Many of the pictures have the same Spanish background of capes and castles and cavaliers that offers ideal scope for Mr. Lawson's art.

Aurelio's early days were Caribbean, but a hurricane blew him to Spain. Aurelio missed the fresh fruits of his homeland. He became obsessed with the desire to return. Chance brought him in touch with a penniless mapmaker called Columbus. Aurelio, whose speech made him the wonder of the court of Ferdinand and Isabella, arranged an interview. Columbus emerged as Admiral of the Ocean Sea. But Columbus, it seems, hated the sea. By a ruse Aurelio lured him aboard his flagships—and the rest is history. Readers of all ages are going to be very grateful to Mr. Lawson for revealing at long last the unvarnished, unveracious but eventful story of annus mirabilis 1492.

From the dust jacket