Cappy West in Mongolia

Cappy West was sure his compass had finally broken. There was nothing out here but grass and sky. Meet Cappy West — a friendly capybara with a brass compass, a sage-green bandana, and absolutely no sense of direction. He never sets out to learn anything. The learning just keeps finding him. In Book 10 of Cappy West: The Global Explorer, Cappy wanders onto the endless grasslands of Mongolia and gets everything delightfully wrong. He sleeps against a wall that turns out to be a fold-up felt house. He challenges expert kid riders to a race and eats their dust. He tries to "rescue" a herd of wild horses, shivers across the freezing Gobi on a two-humped camel, trips over a nest of dinosaur eggs, and bumbles into all three games of the Naadam festival at once. Along the way, young readers discover real, verified facts about Mongolia: one of the most thinly settled lands on Earth; the ger, a round felt home that travels with the family; children who ride in long-distance horse races; the takhi, the only truly wild horse left; the cold Gobi Desert and its two-humped Bactrian camels; the first nest of dinosaur eggs ever found; the world's coldest capital; the tallest horse-and-rider statue on Earth; and the summer festival of Naadam. Every short chapter pairs a funny blunder with a true discovery, a Fun Fact, and a gentle Cappy Tip about kindness, curiosity, and slowing down to notice the world. The book closes with a Travel Scrapbook, a fact recap, and a quiz to share. Perfect for ages 6–8 (grades 2–3), confident new readers, bedtime read-alouds, and homeschool trips around the globe. Each book stands on its own — or collect the whole around-the-world series. "I wasn't lost — I was just taking the scenic route to this fact!"