Orem Library

An irresistible blend of history, myth, and misadventure, this book captures the wonder and drama of first contact. Vikings, conquistadors, French voyageurs, these and many others roamed an unknown continent in quest of grapes, gold, converts, even a cure for syphilis. Though most failed, their remarkable exploits left an enduring mark on the land and people encountered by late-arriving English settlers.

In this book without words, a boy opens a door and invites the reader to explore the magical world on the other side.

Chronicles the voyages of Columbus after his famous 1492 landfall in the Americas, explaining how they reflected Columbus's uncanny navigational skills before taking an extreme toll on his health and personal circumstances.

Mary Kingsley spent her childhood in a small house on a lonely lane outside London, England. Her mother was bedridden, her father rarely home, and Mary served as housekeeper, handyman, nursemaid, and servant. Not until she was thirty years old did Mary get her chance to explore the world she'd read about in her father's library. In 1893, she arrived in West Africa, where she encountered giant Xying insects, crocodiles, hippos, and brutal heat.

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An expedition by sea to the Arctic in 1885 to search for the explorer, John Franklin. The protagonists are two men from Philadelphia, the dynamic but foolhardy organizer and his companion, a naturalist who considers himself a loser. The loser lives, the dynamo dies. By the author of Ship Fever.

An introduction to the Age of Exploration covers the nautical practices of fifteenth-century Europe, Henry the Navigator's fateful new sea routes, and the impact of European advancement on ancient civilizations.

"In 1859, ex-East India Company smuggler Merrick Tremayne is trapped at home in Cornwall after sustaining an injury that almost cost him his leg. When the India Office recruits Merrick for an expedition to fetch quinine--essential for the treatment of malaria--from deep within Peru, he knows it's a terrible idea. Nearly every able-bodied expeditionary who's made the attempt has died, and he can barely walk. But Merrick is desperate to escape the strange...

"A bear and a boy who both love exploring learn to share their adventures together"--