It was controversial explorer Vilhjalmur Stefansson who sent four young men and Ada Blackjack into the far North to colonize desolate, uninhabited Wrangel Island. Only two of the men had set foot in the Arctic before. They took with them six months' worth of supplies on Stefansson's theory that this would be enough to sustain them for a year while they lived off the land itself. But as winter set in, they were struck by hardship and tragedy. As months...

"The human story has always been one of perseverance--often against remarkable odds. The most astonishing survival tale of all might be that of 16th-century Dutch explorer William Barents and his crew of sixteen, who ventured farther north than any Europeans before and, on their third polar exploration, lost their ship off the frozen coast of Nova Zembla to unforgiving ice. The men would spend the next year fighting off ravenous polar bears, gnawing...

Documents the biologist adventurer's treks in the vast wilderness region spanning the Pacific rainforest through the Alaskan Arctic, where she and her husband tested their physical boundaries while making profound natural-world connections. For fans of Cheryl Strayed, the gripping story of a biologist's human-powered journey from the Pacific Northwest to the Arctic to rediscover her love of birds, nature, and adventure. During graduate school, as...

"Could you survive being a lone castaway on a deserted island? Ada Blackjack: Castaway in the True Survival series explores Blackjack's shocking survival story. The book is written with a high interest level and lower level of complexity to serve more mature students reading at lower levels. Clear visuals, colorful photographs (including images of the survivors!), and considerate text help with comprehension and wild facts hold the readers' from the...

In 1921, Inupait seamstress Ada Blackjack joined a a group of four white men who wanted to establish a trading post on Wrangel Island in the freezing Arctic Ocean. The explorers were stranded on the island when their return ship was forced to turn back due to ice. Facing harsh conditions and dwindling food supplies, the men died one by one, but Ada remained. Find out how she alone managed to survive the disastrous expedition.

"While Amundsen, Franklin, and Peary were first to explore the furthest geographical reaches of the Polar North, Knud Rasmussen was the first to explore its culture and its soul. Part Danish, part Inuit, the famed explorer anthropologist made an epic three year journey by dog sled from Greenland to Alaska recording not only the landscapes but also the songs and stories of the Eskimo people. In the ranks of the great explorer/writers who opened hitherto...

Describes how a small dog became the lead dog as her musher, Pam Flowers, prepared for and made her historic journey alone across the North American Arctic.

Author and illustrator Simon Schwartz weaves biography and fiction together to explore the life of Arctic adventurer Matthew Henson. Moving between different time periods and incorporating Inuit mythology, Schwartz offers fresh perspectives on the many challenges Henson confronted during his life. As a member of early missions to reach the North Pole, Henson braved subzero temperatures and shifting sea ice. As an African American at the turn of the...

Chronicles the life of Peter Freuchen, a wildly eccentric Dane whose insatiable curiosity and unquenchable thirst for adventure, guided by ideals remarkably ahead of his time, took him from the twilight years of Arctic exploration to the Danish underground during World War II.

Working to earn money for his education. Vilhjalmur succeeds and graduates from the University of Iowa. His graduate work at Harvard leads to a scientific grant and eventual expedition to explore the uncharted lands of the Arctic.