Illuminations Year 3, 3rd-8th Grade

The cabin boy on the "Santa Maria" keeps a diary which records his experiences when he sails with Columbus on his first voyage to the New World in 1492. Pedro de Salcedo could not have known what adventures lay ahead! His incredible voyage as ship's boy aboard Christopher Columbus' Santa Maria would bring both danger and excitement. Pedro captured his experience between the pages of a journal. If he did not return alive perhaps someone, someday would find it and learn of his incredible journey to the New World.

An Indian boy who tends llamas in a hidden valley in Peru learns the traditions and secrets of his Inca ancestors.

That's the order from his fearsome master. And Widge -- a poor orphan with the rare ability to write a unique coded shorthand -- has no choice but to follow orders. So Widge works his way into the Globe Theatre, where Shakespeare's troupe rehearses and performs. The players take him in and treat him as one of their own. Afraid to disappoint his master, but unwilling to betray his new friends, Widge is torn. Will he secretly copy down the lines? Until he decides whether to disobey his sinister master or betray his new friends, he must play the part of his life.

A Polish family in the Middle Ages guards a great secret treasure and a boy's memory of an earlier trumpeter of Krakow makes it possible for him to save his father.