SEA CLOCKS

Writing in blank verse for no discernible reason, Borden profiles John Harrison, monomaniacal inventor of a “chronometer” that revolutionized navigation at sea. It’s a grand tale of lifelong dedication and justice delayed but done at last (there was a huge public award involved)—but it’s just been told for the same audience in Kathryn Lasky’s distinguished Man Who Made Time Travel, illustrated by Kevin Hawkes (p. 535). Hawkes’s illustrations are broad, colorful, and sometimes comic, whereas Blegvad’s are more delicate, depicting harbor scenes, ornate clocks, and small figures in 18th-century dress, in a medley of fine-lined ink drawings and muted color. It’s a story worth telling, but because the two renditions cover largely the same territory, consider this one worthy, but not essential. (afterword) (Picture book/biography. 7-9)