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Website maintenance April 24 10pm ET
On Wednesday April 24 at 10pm ET the CELA website will be unavailable for about 15 minutes for planned maintenance.
On Wednesday April 24 at 10pm ET the CELA website will be unavailable for about 15 minutes for planned maintenance.
Showing 1 - 20 of 238 items
By Nando Parrado. 2006
A Uruguayan rugby player recounts surviving the 1972 plane crash that is remembered for causing acts of heroism and cannibalism.…
Discusses the physical perils of subzero weather, the group's reaction upon hearing that the rescue operation was called off, and the author's hike over the mountains for help. 2006By T. R Pearson. 2006
Chronicles the life of German-born sailor William Willis (1893-1968), highlighting his voyages aboard small crafts of his own design and…
construction. Describes his 1954 115-day, trans-Pacific solo journey (with a cat and a parrot), during which he endured injuries, ailments, storms, and other calamities and survived by drinking seawater. 2006By Greg Mortenson, David Oliver Relin, Sarah Thomson. 2006
Award-winning journalist Relin describes the mission of American humanitarian Greg Mortenson, who established the Central Asia Institute and built schools…
throughout Taliban-ruled lands. Discusses his childhood in Tanzania and a failed 1993 attempt to climb K2, which resulted in a promise to the Pakistani villagers who saved his life. 2006By Howard Pyle. 2004
Recounts the legend of Robin Hood and his band of outlaws--including Little John, Friar Tuck, and Allan a Dale--who plunder…
the rich to help the poor. Describes mistakenly poaching the king's deer and Sherwood Forest escapades against their enemy the Sheriff of Nottingham. For grades 6-9 and older readers. 1883By Alanna Mitchell. 2005
Award-winning environmental reporter examines human-induced ecologic destruction as possible early indication of a sixth mass extinction. Records her three-year tour…
of Earth's most beleaguered areas in South America, the Middle East, the Arctic, Iceland, Madagascar, and the Galapagos Islands, where climate change, species loss, and deforestation threaten biodiversity. 2004By Gary Paulsen. 2001
Author of Hatchet (BR 11525) relates how falling in love with the ocean at age seven evolved into a later…
love for sailing. Describes boats he has owned, his adventures up and down the Pacific Coast, and surviving a killer storm. For grades 6-9 and older readers. 2001Retired veterinarian and director of Chicago's Lincoln Park Zoo recalls safari adventures in India, Papua New Guinea, Africa, and Iceland.…
Describes personal encounters with wildlife, such as pulling a jaguar's tooth, crawling under an elephant's belly to avoid injury, and chasing an escaped gorilla. 2005Compendium of cons throughout history. Describes charlatans such as Nostradamus, misrepresentations perpetrated by the media, wartime ruses, state-sponsored deceptions, scientific…
and literary frauds, lies that have had catastrophic consequences, royal impersonators, and great escapes. 2005By Brad Strickland. 2002
In 1687 eleven-year-old Irish orphan Davy sails to Jamaica to live with his uncle, Dr. "Patch" Shea. They join a…
British frigate where Patch and his friend Lieutenant William Hunter help stage an aborted mutiny. Fleeing, the mutineers commandeer a sloop and masquerade as pirates. Precedes Guns of Tortuga (BR 15069). For grades 4-7. 2002By Mary Pope Osborne. 2002
Long ago in ancient Greece, Odysseus lived happily with his wife, Penelope, until he was called by King Agamemnon to…
wage war against Troy. On the return voyage, Odysseus has many adventures, facing dangers from storms and monsters like Cyclops, the one-eyed giant. For grades 3-6. 2002By Shirley-Raye Redmond. 2003
In 1803, President Thomas Jefferson sends explorers Lewis and Clark across the country to map the land and bring back…
plants and animals. The men capture a prairie dog and send it to Washington for everyone to see. Beginning Reader. For grades 2-4. 2003By Dayton Duncan. 2003
Account of the first cross-country automobile trip in the United States. In 1903 Horatio Jackson, a thirty-one-year-old Vermont doctor, bet…
fifty dollars that he could drive from San Francisco to New York despite only 150 miles of paved roadway in the entire nation. Introduction by Ken Burns, maker of a companion PBS documentary. 2003By Harold Faber. 2001
Introduces the explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark who led the first United States expedition to the Pacific coast from…
1804-1806. Discusses their adventures crossing the continent, their encounters with Native Americans, and the hardships of the journey. For grades 5-8. 20022002
Seven blind persons recall how they have reached the summit as they scaled "personal mountains." "To Climb Every Mountain" describes…
Erik Weihenmayer's successful ascent of Mt. Everest. Other chapters recount a blind student's camp counselor job and a teenager's conquest of the fear of losing her physical freedom on becoming blind. 2002By Howard Blum. 1998
Describes how, in the late 1980s, Larry Williams, a self-made millionaire, and Bob Cornuke, an ex-policeman, discover what they believe…
to be Mount Sinai in Saudi Arabia. Their activities draw the attention of both Saudi and Israeli agents when the site is revealed to be a top-secret Saudi military installationBy Judy Alter. 2001
Brief biographies of seventy-three men and women--from the Greek hero Hercules to Mae Jemison--who traveled to new lands or conquered…
space. Includes major explorers of North America and the North Pole, as well as more recent astronauts. For grades 5-8 and older readers. 2001By Nathaniel Philbrick. 2002
Recounts the 1820 sinking of the Essex by an enraged sperm whale and the survivors' ordeal--including cannibalism. Incorporates a fourteen-year-old…
cabin boy's account of this marine disaster, which inspired the climactic scenes of Moby Dick. Some violence. For grades 6-9 and older readers. 2002Seventeen fiction and nonfiction tales of adversity and courage by such authors as Jack London, Farley Mowat, Piers Paul Read,…
and Jon Krakauer. The editor states that these unwanted adventures "almost always begin with fate, foul-ups, and plain old bad luck." Some violence and some strong language. 2001By Will Steger. 1997
Recounts Steger's 1995 trip over the North Pole by dogsled and canoe. Steger's journey begins in Siberia with six teammates,…
thirty-three dogs, and two tons of gear. His journal entries detail daily events, weather conditions, setbacks, dog problems, and human difficulties in successfully mounting the expedition. Grades 4-7By Valerian Alʹbanov. 2000
In April 1914, after nearly eighteen months aboard the icebound Saint Anna, Russian navigator Albanov and ten companions set off…
across 235 miles of frozen Arctic sea on improvised kayaks and sledges. Albanov recounts the ninety-day ordeal that he and only one other survived. Originally published in 1917. 2000