A Marco Polo Scrapbook

Rustichello wrote Marco’s story in words but there’s more than one way to tell a tale. Playwrights and actors dramatize stories; photojournalists tell them with photographs. A scrapbook’s a fun way to tell a story. Make a scrapbook of Marco’s adventures! Use art—painting, calligraphy, collage, poetry—to tell the story.

What you need

• Sketchbook or journal
• Paints and brushes
• Markers
• Scissors
• Old magazines for clippings
• Old postcards and notecards
• Old maps
• Miscellaneous items such as foil, yarn, feathers, colorful cloth
• Glue

Make a scrapbook of Marco Polo’s journey. You could divide the journey geographically—starting in Venice, the city of canals, and traveling through ancient Persia with its mosaics and bazaars, the lands of the Mongols, where people lived in round gers and rode horses across the steppes, to China, where powerful emperors built Great Walls and the Khan ruled from a magnificent palace. From there, you’ll move to lush and exotic Indonesia, and India, with its elephants and temples. Or

you could divide the story by traditions and customs—devote a page to each region’s religions, ceremonies, and traditional dress. Perhaps you can think of other ways to present Marco Polo’s journey.

For each page of your scrapbook, use art to interpret the geography or customs of the land. Use paints, markers, clippings from magazines, or any other objects to create a collage that represents that country or custom. For Persia, for instance, you might want to make a collage that looks like a mosaic, a traditional art form of ancient Persia. You can cut small pieces of different-colored paper and glue them in the scrapbook, leaving a little white space between them, in the shapes of camels, palaces, an oasis in a desert. You can use Chinese brushstrokes on your China page to paint wise mandarins, beautiful ladies in silk robes, dragons, and tigers. Look for pictures in the old magazines and cards that represent Indonesia—green jungles, spices, bright birds. Perhaps you’d like to devote pages to the religions of the east. Paste gold foil in your scrapbook in the shape of a temple and draw four-armed Siva dancing within a circle of fire. Use colorful cloths to make Tibetan prayer flags. Make a Silk Road page, or one with the animals of China (pandas, musk deer) or India (elephants, peacocks). You can write poems or short stories in the scrapbook too. Title each page with creative lettering.

You can make a scrapbook like this of your own adventures. It’s a great way to preserve memories of vacations and friends.