The Travels of Ferdinand Magellan by Joanne Mattern

This is a biography for upper-elementary students that tells the story of the adventures of the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Megellan in the early 1500's. Magellan's goal was to find a way to reach the Indies by sailing West instead of East. He and his crew ended up discovering a passage through South America connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. This passage is now known as the Strait of Magellan.
One of the merits of this book is that it contains many maps showing the route Magellan took. The old drawings and etchings depicting Magellan and his ships also add to the story and give reader's good examples of different art forms over time. Another strength of the book is that it has real quotes from the people involved in Magellan's story. For example the starving sailor who writes "We ate biscuit that was no longer biscuit, but powder of biscuit swarming with worms" (page 30). Quotes like these throughout the story are more powerful than just a simple narraration of events and help reader's get a better idea of what it was really like to be there.