Fifteen-year-old Jason embarks on a ten thousand-mile journey in 1897 in hopes of striking it rich after hearing the news that gold has been discovered in Canada's Yukon Territory.

A family that moves to California to look for gold fails to find it, but instead discovers a beautiful valley in which to build a farm.

"In his debut picture book Sock on the Loose, author-illustrator Conor McGlauflin takes you on a fun, sock-filled, adventure about finding yourself and discovering your way back home. Socks come in twos, snuggled up in your shoes. At night they sleep tight, matching pairs in a row. Until--wait a minute!--oh no! Where did Blue Sock go?... After its twin doesn't come back from the wash, Blue Sock decides it wants to explore the great big world outside...

The Call of the Wild, by Jack London, is one of America's best-known novels. In his Reader's Companion to this new edition, Daniel Dyer provides a wealth of annotations explaining the book's many "sourdough" expressions and geographical references in order to help the modern reader see what London saw. Dyer also identifies characters in the novel - human and canine alike - whom London had known, and he spices his annotations with Northern lore and...

In 1851 twelve-year-old Sarah is a free Black, happy living with her parents, grandparents, and brother on their own farm in Iowa; but her father has been bitten by the gold bug and wants to take the trail west to California, and after some argument it is decided that the grandparents will stay on the farm, but the rest of the family will go; the journey will be difficult and dangerous, but if they survive extreme weather, difficult terrain, illness,...

This volume explores the concept of manifest destiny and its impact on westward migration.

"I scraped off the wet clay with mounting excitement. There was no mistaking what I saw."   What Mary Anning found in the cliffs in 1811, when she was 13, was the first complete fossil of an ichthyosaurus, a marine dinosaur. She hunted and sold fossils to save her family from poverty after her father died when she was 11 years old. Despite social disapproval of her unfeminine occupation, Mary persisted and became a leading fossilist who made valuable...

"British captain Henry Hudson investigated the eastern coast of North America. Find out how he explored the river that would someday bear his name-the Hudson River. Question prompts included to assist reader comprehension."--

"Daniel Boone was a hunter and a woodsman. Find out how he explored the unknown lands beyond the Appalachian Mountains, especially the area known as Kentucky. Question prompts included to assist reader comprehension."--

"Directed by U.S. President Thomas Jefferson, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark teamed up in 1805 to explore the land included in the Louisiana Purchase. Find out how the findings from their two-year expedition Corps of Discovery set the stage for later settlement of the American West. Question prompts included to assist reader comprehension."--