Books with author Ann Byers

Pedro lvares Cabral sailed around the world for Portugal in the early sixteenth century. His efforts led to a treaty opening the spice trade with India, but also years of war between his men and the kingdom of Calicut. Along the way he also discovered Brazil, perhaps by accident, opening the door for centuries of Portuguese colonization there. This biography dives into Cabrals background, his exploration assignments, and the impact, both positive and negative, of his voyages to India and Brazil.

Having been a kidnap victim, slave, world traveler, and helper, Squanto's story is far bigger than what is typically told at Thanksgiving. The Native American famous for enabling the Pilgrims to survive also helped establish a peace between European settlers and Native Americans that lasted forty years. This book takes young readers into Squanto's life and world as it describes his tribe and contrasts his culture with the ways of the newcomers to his land. Readers will also meet his chief, Massasoit, and learn how Squanto is remembered today.

The outermost khanate of the Mongol Empire was the Golden Horde, which conquered the Rus in northwestern Russia in the thirteenth century and continued to rule there in some capacity until the Russian Empire annexed Crimea, the khanates last holdout, in 1783. Despite vast cultural and geographic differences between Rus and the Mongols traditional homeland on the steppes of Central Asia, the Golden Horde flourished, with Moscow becoming the dominant principality. This fascinating and little-known history is related in thrilling, panoramic narrative detail and includes profiles of Rus leaders such as Alexander Nevsky and Daniel of Moscow.

This fascinating narrative introduces young readers to the ancient civilizations of Mesoamerica. Evolving from their primitive ways to complex societies, these ancient peoples left records for archaeologists to piece together to glean what these peoples were really like more than 3,000 years ago. Among the civilizations examined are the Olmec, Zapotec, Aztec, and Maya. Lands, cultures, religions, and daily life activities are considered, as well as the colossal rock heads of the Olmec that still exist, the maguey plant that the Zapotec grew and used for making houses, and the temple at Chichn Itz, among other remarkable facts and achievements.

On July 25, 2000, the once glittering dream of commercial supersonic travel seemed to come to a fiery end as Air France Concorde Flight 4590 crashed two minutes after takeoff from Charles de Gaulle Airport outside of Paris. The planes that once carried millionaires and moguls were grounded and many people believed they would never fly again. With the help of powerful eyewitness testimony and a minute-by-minute cockpit voice recorder transcript of the flight crew's communication with air traffic control, this is the story of the birth, death, and rebirth of the Concorde.