Adventure Book for Kids Explorer Academy The Nebula Secret

When Cruz and 23 other kids from around the globe begin their first day at Explorer Academy, they are each assigned to a team named after a famous explorer: Cousteau, Earhart, Galileo, or Magellan. The teams are meant to inspire kids to work together and each namesake offers its own special inspiration.

COUSTEAU

Fast facts: Jacques Cousteau was a French explorer, inventor, and filmmaker born in 1910. As a young naval officer, Cousteau discovered that he loved diving and the sea. He fought in World War II as a gunnery officer and was a member of the French Resistance against Germany, earning him a Legion of Honor award.

Together with an engineer he created the first fully automatic compressed air Aqua-Lung, which allowed divers to swim freely underwater for an extended period of time. Yes, S.C.U.B.A. gear! Throughout his long career he created more inventions to help explore the ocean’s depths, but is perhaps best known for his many films and books that brought his message of caring about the sea and its creatures to millions of viewers and readers around the globe.

Inspirational traits: Daring, determined, creative, one of the world’s first environmentalists

EARHART

Fast facts: Amelia Earhart was a trailblazer from the start. Born in Kansas in 1897,Earhart worked as a nurse and a social worker while pursuing her love of aviation. In 1928, she became the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean and piloted an autogiro to a record-breaking 18,415 feet (5,613 m) in 1931. In 1932, she crossed the Atlantic alone in her Lockheed Vega and completed it in record time (14 hours 56 minutes). But it was while attempting her greatest feat yet —a journey around the world—that she disappeared. On July 2, 1937, Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan left Lae, New Guinea for Howland Island, a 2,600-mile (4,200-km) journey. Neither Earhart nor her navigator were ever seen again. Some theorize that she might have been a castaway on Nikumaroro Island but the evidence is inconclusive.

Inspirational traits: Brave, confident, high-minded, embraced new technology

GALILEO

Fast facts: Galileo Galilei was born in 1564 in what is now Italy. He was a natural philosopher, astronomer, and mathematician, and even a physicist – what today we’d call a true Renaissance man. He was famous for emphasizing the connection between nature and mathematics, and was a huge advocate of the heliocentric solar system (the sun at the center), which landed him in a lot of trouble with the Catholic church.

After learning about a device that enabled one to see objects far away that was invented in the Netherlands, he crafted a similar contraption through trial and error. Galileo noted many things with his telescope—sunspots, four of the moons of Jupiter, the rings of Saturn, the phases of Venus, and the rocky surface of the moon.

Inspirational traits: Curious, audacious, inventive, great observational skills

MAGELLAN

Fast facts: Ferdinand Magellan was born in Portugal in 1480. In 1519, he set out under the Spanish flag to find an easier route to the ‘Spice Islands’ (now known as the Maluku Islands, which are part of modern-day Indonesia), at a time when there were still many myths about Earth’s geography. Some believed that the world was flat, though scientists and great thinkers had known for a long time that it wasn’t.

Magellan endured many hardships, from a lack of fresh food to multiple mutinies and desertions. Though he is popularly known as being the first to circumnavigate the globe, he never achieved that goal. The journey proved more than he bargained for, and he was killed in the Philippines before he could return in triumph. The only one of his five ships to survive the journey eventually made it back to Spain in 1522, and it was more than 50 years before the circumnavigation feat was again attempted.

Inspirational traits: Adventurous, resilient, resourceful, keen navigator

The Explorer Academy Series

Throughout the Explorer Academy series, kids will be inspired by the many kinds of explorers that are mentioned or featured, such as:

• astronomer
• biomedical scientist
• climate change scientist
• conservationist
• engineer
• geologist
• herpetologist
• inventor
• linguistic anthropologist
• marine biologist
• materials architect
• oceanographer
• paleoanthropologist
• paleontologist
• scientist
• science photographer
• technologist
• wildlife photographer

Already have some great adventures in mind? Let us know in the comments below or email us at

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“A fun, exciting and action-packed ride that kids will love.”
—J.J. Abrams, director of Star Trek, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Lost and Alias
“Explorer  Academy  is  sure  to  awaken  readers’  inner  adventurer  and  curiosity  about  the  world  around  them.”
—LeVar  Burton,  host  of  “Reading  Rainbow”and “LeVar  Burton  Reads”