BOOKS FOR CHILDREN, EDUCATION, AND HOMESCHOOLING
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BIOGRAPHIES OF EXPLORERS

Studies of Exploration and Many Explorers

Around the World in a Hundred Years from Henry the Navigator to Magellan by Jean Fritz. Penguin Putnam, 1994. This humorous book, enhanced by the illustrations of Anthony Bacon Venti, introduces ten explorers who ventured into the unknown between 1421 and 1522: Prince Henry the Navigator, Bartholomew Diaz, Christopher Columbus, Vasco da Gama, Pedro Alvares Cabral, John Cabot, Amerigo Vespucci, Juan Ponce de León, Vasco de Balboa, and Ferdinand Magellan. For middle graders. BTH-2602 $8.09-D

As It Was Series: Exploration / Discovery / Encounter, American History: Written by Jim McAlpine, Betty Weineek, Sue Jeweler, and Marion Findbinder. Published by Educational Impressions for grades 4-8. Covers 27 topics including Marco Polo, Magellen, Cabot, Tobacco, Gold, Northwest Passage, James Cook, Pizzaro, Vikings, Fur, Balboa, Coronado, Champlain, Horses, and many more. For more about this series, including the other volumes in it, see As It Was Series BTH-399 $9.86-D

Polar Explorers for Kids: Historic Expeditions to the Arctic and Antarctic with 21 Activities by Maxine Snowden. Chicago Review Press, 2004. This book will allow readers nine and up to meet 16 great heroes who explored the icy realms of the polar regions.  From Eric the Red in 982 to Bill Green in the later years of the twentieth century.  In between are John Davis (1585-1587), Henry Hudson (1607-1610), William Parry (1819-1827), John Franklin (1845-1847), Fridtjof Nansen (1893-1896), Roald Amundsen (1903-1906), Robert Peary and Fredrick Cook (1908-1909), Gretel Ehrlich (1993-2000), Captain James Cook (1768-1775), James Clark Rose (1839-1843), Robert Scott and Roald Amundsen (1910-1912), Ernest Shackleton (1914-1916), and Admiral Richard E. Byrd (1929).

Activities include making a Viking compass, building a snow cave, creating a model igloo, making a cross-staff to measure latitude, making polar provisions, publishing a newspaper, finding directions to the North Pole, celebrating snow with poems and an all-white collage, making a barometer, making pemmican, assessing wind speed, communicating with Morse Code, creating an edible map of Antarctica, and more.

The book includes times lines for both Arctic and Antarctic explorations, a glossary, list of related books and web sites, and an index. The book is illustrated with black and white maps and photos. 150 pages.BTH-4032. $15.26-D

Short Plays for Building Fluency: Famous Americans by multiple authors. Scholastic, 2008. Formerly published as Famous Americans, 22 Short Plays for the Classroom. Help build students' reading fluency and build awareness of important people in U.S. history through fact-based, original plays about 22 famous Americans. These read-aloud biographical plays provide kids with the repeated practice they need to read with speed, automaticity, and expression-the key elements of fluency. Background information, discussion questions, extension activities, and literature links round out this versatile resource. Subjects of plays include Christopher Columbus, Ben Franklin, George Washington, Phillis Wheatley, Lewis and Clark, Davy Crockett, Abraham Lincoln, Susan B. Anthony, Harriet Tubman, John Muir, Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell, George Washington Carver, Susan Picotte, Nellie Bly, The Wright Brothers, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Amelia Earhart, Langston Hughes, Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr, Jackie Robinson, Cesar Chavez, and Neil Armstrong. For grades 4-8. BTH-4661. $17.99-D

Brendan the Navigator

Brendan the Navigator: A History Mystery about the Discovery of America by Jean Fritz. Penguin-Putnam, trade paper. About 1500 years ago, as legend say, St. Brendan left Ireland to find paradise. Legend also says the island of unsurpassed beauty that he called paradise was really America. Jean Fritz presents all the evidence she can find that the story may really be true. $5.40-D

Christopher Columbus

Christopher Columbus, by Zachary Kent. part of the World's Great Explorers series, Children's Press, 1991, OP.  128 pages, including index, bibliography, glossary, and timeline. Illustrated with maps, photos, and art reproductions. For upper elementary grades. Examines the life of Columbus, his journeys of exploration to the New World, and his later years. Part of top margin of book is shaded gray. BTH-1648$7.93-B.  Supplies limited.

Christopher Columbus by Stephen Krensky. Random House Step into Reading, Level 2 for grades 1-3. Illustrated in full color by Norman Green, with many full-page color pictures. This is an easy to read book with large print and lots of white space between lines. 48 pages.
#0679-803696. $3.59-D

Christopher Columbus: The Man Who Unlocked the Secrets of the World, by Teri Martini. Trade paper, Paulist Press. Out of print, but we still have a few left. For ages 9-12. This biography begins with Columbus being shipwrecked at the age of 25, beginning a career that leaps between mishaps and triumph, with Columbus alternately rejected, cheered, and then humiliated for his ideas. This book details Columbus' endless attempts to cross the ocean, but also offers a rare look at his spiritual motivation. $4.95*

Columbus, by Ingri & Edgar Parin D'Aulaire. Another large-format trade paper picture book for middle graders. It tells the story of a young Italian boy in the 1400's who had a goal -- he would sail the sea -- not sit in a small dark room and weave like his father did. Young Christopher's vision expands as he learns more about navigation and observes the world around him -- especially the sea. When he heard the story of the land Leif Erikson had discovered, he was sure it must have been part of Asia, and he decided that God had chosen him to carry the Christian faith to the heathen across the sea. Did his name not mean Christ-Bearer? The D'Aulaires fill in the details of Columbus' adventures on land and sea and also portray a man who had a problem with pride that eventually kept him from fully reaching his goals. There is a lot to learn and discuss in these sixty beautifully illustrated pages. 12.95*.

Columbus and the Renaissance Explorers by Colin Hynson, Barron's Educational. Part of Barron's Great Explorers series for ages 10 and up. Very Visual. Cat. #BAR-0502 / $5.36-D

First Voyage to America From the Log of the "Santa Maria," by Christopher Columbus. Translator unknown. With 44 Sepia illustrations. In a picture book format suitable for children. 91 pages. 6.25-D

Hooray for Columbus! by Jerry Aten. A Good Apple Social Studies Activity Book for Grades 3-6. OP Only one left. 108 pages, including answer key. This reproducible  book begins with an illustrated story of Columbus that students can color. This is followed by bulletin board ideas, worksheets, puzzles, maps, and a frieze project for studying  the voyages of Columbus. 10.95*

I Sailed With Columbus: The Adventures of a Ship's Boy, by Susan Martin, illustrated by Tom Padula. Hardcover with jacket. For upper elementary grades and up. Fourteen-year-old Diego signs on to sail with Columbus and becomes the Santa Maria’s youngest ship’s boy. He tells the story of the voyage to America from his viewpoint. Though a work of fiction, the historical events it is based on have been carefully researched and documented, some from the letters and journals of Columbus himself. 154 pages, including glossary. Contains 32 full color paintings and 22 black and white line drawings. BTH-1650. Originally 17.95. Now,  $11.53-B

In Their Own Words: Christopher Columbus by Peter and Connie Roop. Scholastic, 2000. This book, written at chapter book level, tells the story of Columbus based on the journals he kept on his travels to the New World. Contains chronology, bibliography, and index. 128 pages.
#0439-158079. $4.05-D

Where Do You Think You're Going, Christopher Columbus, by Jean Fritz. Published by Putnam and Grosset. Trade paper. 80 pages with index. This book explores both the political issues involved in exploration and the character of Columbus, in the entertaining style that has made history come alive for many children. For ages 8-11. BTH-2590.$5.36-D

The World of Columbus and Sons by Genevieve Foster. Beautiful Feet, quality oversize paper. 406 indexed pages. I can't say enough good about the Foster books. Rather than isolating the characters she brings to life, she portrays them against the backgrounds of their times.This book explores the world of the Renaissance and Reformation. Illustrated charts at the beginning of each unit show who was living and what important events were taking place, and who ruled the different governments during each time period covered in the book. The text itself is fascinating. I used the Foster books as the basis of my history curriculum. I would read them aloud so we could enjoy them together, we'd talk about what we read, and the children would read related materials of special interest on their own. Part 1 of the book begins in 1451, when Columbus was born, and Part 4 ends in 1539 when his son Ferdinand died.  $15.95*

Leif Ericson

Leif the Lucky, by Ingri & Edgar Parin D'Aulaire. Tells the story of how a brave Viking son set off long before Columbus to settle a new unknown land full of forests and strange trees. All sorts of wild grains, grapevines, and many fruit trees grew their, and Leif called it Vinland. Leif had embraced the Christian faith on a visit to King Olaf in Norway. His father wasn't happy about it, but his mother eventually embraced the new faith herself. This book is full of the adventure of Leif the Lucky -- the first white man to live in America. the book is oversize, trade paper. The illustrations are huge, so this qualifies as a historical picture book, but the text is a little above chapter book reading level. The book is 54 pages long. 13.95*.

Lewis and Clark

Journals of Lewis and Clark with forward by Stephen Ambrose. Edited by Bernard DeVoto. Red top on top edge. 503 indexed pages. Includes maps, Jefferson's instructions to Lewis, a list of the personnel of the expedition. List, 14.00. Now 8.53-B

Of Courage Undaunted: Across the Continent with Lewis and Clark by James Daugherty. This was first published in 1951 and brought back into print by Beautiful Feet Books recently. It recreates the the daring exploits of the Lewis and Clark exploration. To quote the author (and give you a feel for the style) concerning those chosen for the expedition:

    There was nothing you would say was special about them. They chawed tobacco and cussed and caterwauled that they were double-jointed, fire-eating, leather-necked, half-horse half -alligator men who could lick their weight in wildcats. They were picked almost at random out of the Ohio Valley of Virginia, Kentucky, or New England stock, merely a fistful of what American democracy turns out....Any state in the Union can give you ten thousand such at any time...if there is a call to stand together in time of danger, or hold the line on land, in the sea or air, not without bragging and grousing and a sour kind of humor, sometimes terribly scared but never broken by fear, of courage undaunted. (p. 13, © 1967 by Charles Daugherty, son of the author.)

Daugherty has captured the disciplined bravery, the rollicking humor, and the spirit of adventure seen in these men throughout the their expedition to explore the continent of our United States while it was still young. The original two and three-color illustrations from the original have been retained. BTH-106. $16.95*

The Story of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, by R. Conrad Stein. A Cornerstones of Freedom Book. OP. Only one left. 4.95*

Admiral Robert Peary

The Story of Admiral Peary at the North Pole, by Zachary Kent. A Cornerstones of Freedom book. OP. Only one left. 4.95*

Marco Polo

Marco Polo, by Zachary Kent. part of the World's Great Explorers series, Children's Press, 1992, OP.  128 pages, including index, bibliography, glossary, and timeline. Illustrated with maps, photos, and art reproductions. For upper elementary grades. Describes the travels of the medieval Italian explorer and his adventures and discoveries in the Far East.. Part of top margin of book is shaded gray.BTH-1649. $7.93-B.  Supplies limited.

Marco Polo for Kids: His Marvelous Journey to China, by Janis Herbert. Chicago Review Press. For ages 9 and up. Size: 11 x 8.5 inches. Contains 21 activities, including drawing a mythical map, creating a mosaic, Making paper, putting on a wayang-kulit (shadow puppet play), making a mandala, staging a Chinese-style opera, making a dragon mask, making a paper lantern, cooking some Chinese food, and more. The book begins with a time line of Marco Polo's life and a map of his journeys. The book also tells of Marco Polo's adventures and life so that all the activities fit into a historical background. This is a great resource book for those studying China or  explorers. 129 pages. Cat. # BTH-4031. $15.26-D
 

Providential American History / Historical Communities Series

Barron's Great Explorer Series

Used American History Books / Used Biographies

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