Provides biographies of famous navigators, maps, timelines, and more than two hundred illustrations depicting exploration around the world from 1492 to 1600.

Captain Sean Mulkerin comes home from the sea to find his family's Malibu rance in jeopardy. The death of Sean's father has pushed his mother to the edge of financial ruin, and now it's up to Sean to find a way out. The rumor is that the elder Mulkerin found gold in the wild and haunted California hills, but the only clue to its whereabouts lies with an ancient, enigmatic Indian.

"You might know that Columbus discovered America, Lewis and Clark headed west with Sacajawea, and Sally Ride blasted into space. But what do you really know about these bold explorers? What were they like as kids? What pets or bad habits did they have? And what drove their passion to explore unknown parts of the world? With juicy tidbits about everything from favorite foods to first loves, Lives of the Explorers reveals these fascinating adventurers...

Judith St. George shares the joy of discovery in this delightful book about the ups and downs of exploring. So you want to be an explorer? Explorers need courage, like Alexander the Great, who conquered most of the known world. But for budding explorers out there, the rewards can be great. Neil Armstrong earned lasting fame when he became the first person to set foot on the moon.

On March 8, 1421, the largest fleet the world had ever seen set sail from China. Its mission was "to proceed all the way to the ends of the earth to collect tribute from the barbarians beyond the seas" and unite the whole world in Confucian harmony. When it returned in October 1423, the emperor had fallen, leaving China in political and economic chaos. The great ships were left to rot at their moorings and the records of their journeys were destroyed....

Fourteen-year-old Sig is stranded at a remote cabin in the Arctic wilderness with his father, who died just hours earlier after falling through the ice, when a terrifying man arrives, claiming Sig's father owes him a share of a horde of stolen gold and that he will kill Sig if he does not get his money.