NCW Libraries

A retelling of the familiar story of the expedition of Lewis and Clark, but told as a complex human story -- the story of a diverse human community moving through the lands and lives of other communities, where pilgrims made their way by the kindness of strangers.

Mikkelsen, an experienced Arctic adventurer, set out in 1909 to prove that Robert Perry's outline of the East Greeland coast was erroneous and presumably self-serving. Iver Iversen, a ship's mechanic with no experience as an explorer, joined the expedition. Months later, the two men found themselves cut off from the world, suffering every imaginable Arctic travail: Mikkelsen's diary was even eaten by a bear. The two retained their sanity-- and their...

Could anyone somersault across the San Andreas fault? Why was Hawaii named for a sandwich? Children can travel the globe (and some of the sky) discovering the answers to these and other questions about the amazing, fantastic world of geography.

"In 1910, Captain Robert Scott prepared his crew for a trip that no one had ever completed: a journey to the South Pole. He vowed to get there any way he could, even if it meant looking death in the eye. Then, not long before he set out, the telegram arrived: "Proceeding to Antarctic - Roald Amundsen." What was to be an expedition had become a race. One hundred and eight years later, Captain Louis Rudd readied himself for a similarly grueling task:...