For most people, the idea of biking across America would seem like an impossible undertaking. If you were told you would be spending 20,000 minutes on your bike seat to cover a distance of 3,000+ miles, it would seem like lunacy. It appears even more improbable if you include crossing hot deserts, sandstorms, tornados, scary thunderstorms, remote stretches, soul sucking headwinds, flood plains, steep inclines, treacherous declines, trucks blasting by you two feet away at 80+ mph, hunger de...

How did we get from 20-foot-long maps to GPS devices small enough to fit in the palm of our hands? How does GPS work and what can it tell us? How do ancient mapmaking techniques used by the Romans and Greeks influence the satellite technologies we use today? The history of mapmaking is full of remarkable characters who charted the unknown with an ever-changing set of tools. In Mapping and Navigation: The History and Science of Finding Your Way, kids ages 9–12 will learn the histor...

Town College City Road follows Kurt Boozel from childhood in an insular Northwestern Pennsylvania steel town through life’s booms and busts, and back to his Rust Belt home. As a teenage math whiz, Kurt is bullied but relishes the opportunity to tutor his high school’s star athlete. After their friendship ends in a public and emasculating act of violence, Kurt steers his life progressively eastward, first as a closeted economics major clinging to the coattails of his richer fratern...

101 Fun, Useful Facts in Plain English - at a great price!101 Fantastic Moon Facts takes you just outside of our world and into the world of that big, bright object in the sky.- How far away is it?- What is it made of?- Who has been to the moon and what did they do there?Learn all sorts of interesting facts about this celestial body that you never knew before. Great for kids and adults, you'll love the helpful features of this comprehensive eBook:...

New York Times bestselling author Simon Winchester looks at which way the wind blows in this exciting book about giant storms.Simon Winchester is an avid weather watcher. He’s scanned the skies in Oklahoma, waiting for the ominous “finger” of a tornado to touch the Earth. He’s hunkered down in Hong Kong when typhoon warning signals went up. He’s visited the world’s hottest and wettest places, reported on fierce whirlpools, and sailed around South Africa lo...

Whether ruining a commute or devastating entire countries, inclement weather has the power to capture attention and headlines. This book examines the science that gives us a greater understanding of the patterns that produce hurricanes, tornadoes, cyclones, and a host of related conditions. It also discusses another persistent issue of inclement weather, which is how to better predict climatic extremes.

As a young boy, Charles Darwin hated school and was often scolded forconducting “useless” experiments. Yet his passion for the natural world was so strong that he suffered through terrible seasickness during his five-year voyage aboard The Beagle. Darwin collected new creatures from the coasts of Africa, South America, and the Galapagos Islands, and expanded his groundbreaking ideas that would change people's understanding of the natural world. About 100 illustrations and a clear, exciting...

From the food available at the local store to the clothes we choose to wear every day, weather determines many of the major decisions we make and the actions we pursue. While we may not be able to control the weather, understanding the factors that cause a hurricane or allow us to plant certain crops, for example, can help us better prepare for both natural disasters and our daily lives. Detailed illustrations and photographs, interesting sidebars, and the topical narrative of this volume ...

Famous inventors and the inventions they develop is a fascinating area of historical study that is usually far too advanced for young children. However, a Famous Inventors & Inventions Picture Book breaks that information down in a way that is interesting and engaging to young boys and girls. Instead of pages and pages of text that makes no sense to them, children can see a picture of the inventor alongside the invention they created. This helps to begin laying the foundation for this know...

The devastation wrought by earthquakes and volcanoes often obscures the fact that these destructive forces are also some of the most creative on the planet birthing mountains and other land forms. With detailed diagrams outlining the structure of continental and oceanic crust and the distribution of major plate motion, this book introduces readers to the range of activity that can shape or decimate an entire region. Descriptions of famous earthquakes and volcanoes help contextualize the st...

As a boy he preferred reading sea stories to doing homework and, at age 16, became an apprentice seaman. Subsequently, Ernest Shackleton’s incredible journeys to the South Pole in the early 1900s made him one of the most famous explorers of modern times. His courage in the face of dangerous conditions and unforeseeable tragedies reveal the great leader that he was. His historic 1914 journey aboard the Endurance has all the drama of an action movie.

From Roman times until the Age of Exploration, the Silk Road carried goods and ideas across Central Asia between two major centers of civilization, the Mediterranean Sea and China. In The Silk Road: Explore the World's Most Famous Trade Route, readers ages 9–12 will learn about the history, geography, culture, and people of the Silk Road region.Marco Polo was just one of many who set out on the Silk Road in search of wealth, power, or knowledge. These adventurers braved va...