Explore California's rich past with this collection of primary source titles that focuses on California's early history! Students will learn about California's first explorers, early settlers, Indian tribes, Spanish missions, Alta California, the journey to statehood, and much more. Build students' reading skills and social studies literacy with dynamic primary source artifacts including maps, letters, documents, and images that provide authentic reading materials and keep students interested in learning. This high-interest set includes nonfiction readers and biographies, and each book has essential text features like a glossary, index, captions, table of contents, and fascinating sidebars. The Read and Respond section and Your Turn culminating activity prompt students to dive deeper into the text for additional reading and learning as they develop higher-order thinking skills. These books connect to California state studies standards and the NCSS/C3 Framework, and the leveled texts accommodate different reading levels, making differentiation easy to implement. This set includes the following titles: California's Indian Nations, Exploration of California, California's Spanish Missions, Junípero Serra: A Spanish Missionary, Mexican Rule of California, and Trails to California.