Recounts the voyages undertaken by fifteenth-century Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama to strengthen his nation's power by establishing a sea trade route to India.

What must it have been like to be the first to circumnavigate the globe or traverse America from shore to shore? What political, social and financial factors of the day encouraged exploration? What personal dreams and desires drove these fearless men to search the vast unknown waters and lands, to tempt danger time and time again, all in the name of discovery? In Great Explorations, acclaimed authors including recent Laura Ingalls Wilder Award winner...

When his father disappears near the Mexican border at the end of the Civil War, twelve-year-old Tyler decides to go after him and bring him home, acquiring on the journey a strange dog which he names Bigger.

Presents the life and Arctic explorations of Sir Ernest Shackleton.

Describes the life of Hernando Cortés, the Spanish explorer who discovered Baja California and explored the Pacific coast of Mexico, but who is best remembered for conquering the Aztec Empire.

Presents the life and career of the army officer and explorer who discovered, among other places in the West and Southwest, the great Rocky Mountain peak in Colorado that bears his name.