Books with author Scott O'Dell

A 1968 Newbery Honor Book From the depths of a cave in the Vermilion Sea, Ramon Salazar has wrested a black pearl so lustrous and captivating that his father, an expert pearl dealer, is certain Ramon has found the legendary Pearl of Heaven. Such a treasure is sure to bring great joy to the villagers of their tiny coastal town, and even greater renown to the Salazar name. No diver, not even the swaggering Gaspar Ruiz, has ever found a pearl like this! But is there a price to pay for a prize so great? When a terrible tragedy strikes the village, old Luzon’s warning about El Diablo returns to haunt Ramon. If El Diablo actually exists, it will take all Ramon’s courage to face the winged creature waiting for him offshore.

Far off the coast of California looms a harsh rock known as the island of San Nicholas. Dolphins flash in the blue waters around it, sea otter play in the vast kep beds, and sea elephants loll on the stony beaches. Here, in the early 1800s, according to history, an Indian girl spent eighteen years alone, and this beautifully written novel is her story. It is a romantic adventure filled with drama and heartache, for not only was mere subsistence on so desolate a spot a near miracle, but Karana had to contend with the ferocious pack of wild dogs that had killed her younger brother, constantly guard against the Aleutian sea otter hunters, and maintain a precarious food supply.More than this, it is an adventure of the spirit that will haunt the reader long after the book has been put down. Karana's quiet courage, her Indian self-reliance and acceptance of fate, transform what to many would have been a devastating ordeal into an uplifting experience. From loneliness and terror come strength and serenity in this Newbery Medal-winning classic.In celebration of the book's 50th anniversary, this edition has a stunning new look, and an introduction by Lois Lowry, Newbery Medal-winning author of The Giver and Number the Stars.

The Navajo tribe's forced march from their homeland to Fort Sumner by white soldiers and settlers is dramatically and courageously told by young Bright Morning. The Spanish Slavers were an ever-present threat to the Navaho way of life. One lovely spring day, fourteen-year-old Bright Morning and her friend Running Bird took their sheep to pasture. The sky was clear blue against the red buttes of the Canyon de Chelly, and the fields and orchards of the Navahos promised a rich harvest. Bright Morning was happy as she gazed across the beautiful valley that was the home of her tribe. She turned when Black Dog barked, and it was then that she saw the Spanish slavers riding straight toward her.

Take a voyage up the length of the California coast in a cruiser named Arctic Star! Along the way, the author relates the colorful narratives of California's history through the stories of men and women like Cabrillo, Viscaino, Junipero Serra, Kate Sessions, Kit Carson, Jedediah Smith and many more. Drawing from journals of other notable visitors like Richard Henry Dana, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Sir Francis Drake, readers are given a window into life in California hundreds of years ago. O'Dell offers readers dramatic incidents seldom featured in text books on California history - like the worst peacetime disaster in the history of the United States Navy that occurred in the treacherous Jaws of the Devil near Point Conception. Readers will delight in the story of Jedediah Strong Smith's wrestling with a grizzly and the wilderness friend who stitched his ear and face back together - with no anesthesia, of course! Pirates have to play a part in a land so rich in coastline - and they do, with buried treasure on a Southern California isle known as Dead Man's Island. The stories of the discoverers, explorers and settlers of California have never been drawn so delightfully as they are here. With his love of his native state, his knowledge of the landscape, sea life, and historical past of this region, O'Dells work continues to stand as an important contribution to the rich literature of the Golden State.

Includes all Three Books: The Captive The Feathered Serpent The Amethyst Ring What would you do if everyone thought you were a god? Young Juliá́n Escobar is traveling to the New World to spread the gospel to the newly discovered Mayan Empire when a hurricane strikes his ship, scattering its contents to the four winds and leaving Julian as the sole survivor. After struggling ashore, he encounters a young Mayan woman who is shocked at his presence. Soon he learns why. Centuries ago the fair-skinned Mayan god Kukulcá́n—the Feathered Serpent—sailed away with the promise that one day he would return. With his very life at stake, Juliá́n does the unimaginable: he begins to impersonate this returned god. PUBLISHER'S WEEKLY: "Spellbinding...unforgettable adventure." KIRKUS REVIEWS: "Swift and stunning, inevitable and unexpected." NEW YORK TIMES: "There's no better introduction to the rich and remote Mayan culture than through such a well-told tale." SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL: "Juliá́n's transformation from insecure human seminarian to pretend god [is] remarkable." This exciting collector's edition contains all three books in the Seven Serpents Trilogy: The Captive, The Feathered Serpent and The Amethyst Ring.