The Usborne Book of Wild Places: Mountains, Jungles & Deserts (Explainers)


Angela Wilkes - 1999
    This colourful book explores the exciting worlds of mountains, jungles and deserts, their dramatic landscapes, the animals and plants that inhabit them and the people who live in the most beautiful and remote areas of the earth.

Grass Sandals : The Travels of Basho


Dawnine Spivak - 1997
    The book includes examples of the haiku verses he composed.

How They Croaked


Georgia Bragg - 2011
    In fact, getting sick and dying can be a big, ugly mess-especially before the modern medical care that we all enjoy today. How They Croaked relays all the gory details of how nineteen world figures gave up the ghost. For example:It is believed that Henry VIII's remains exploded within his coffin while lying in state. Doctors "treated" George Washington by draining almost 80 ounces of blood before he finally kicked the bucket. Right before Beethoven wrote his last notes, doctors drilled a hole in his stomach without any pain medication.Readers will be interested well past the final curtain, and feel lucky to live in a world with painkillers, X-rays, soap, and 911.

The Wall


Eve Bunting - 1990
    A young boy and his father visit the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

The Care & Keeping of You: The Body Book for Girls


Valorie Schaefer - 1998
    With tips, how-to's, letters from girls, and facts from the experts, here's straightforward advice you can really use.

Sitting Bull: Lakota Warrior and Defender of His People


S.D. Nelson - 2015
    D. Nelson   Sitting Bull (c. 1831–1890) was one of the greatest Lakota/Sioux warriors and chiefs who ever lived. He was eventually named war chief, leader of the entire Sioux nation—a title never before bestowed on anyone. As a leader, Sitting Bull resisted the United States government’s attempt to move the Lakota/Sioux to reservations for more than twenty-five years.   From Sitting Bull’s childhood—killing his first buffalo at age ten—to being named war chief, to leading his people against the U.S. Army, and to his surrender, Sitting Bull: Lakota Warrior and Defender of His People brings the story of the great chief to light. Sitting Bull was instrumental in the war against the invasive wasichus (White Man) and was at the forefront of the combat, including the Battles of Killdeer Mountain and the Little Bighorn. He and Crazy Horse were the last Lakota/Sioux to surrender their people to the U.S. government and resort to living on a reservation.   Award-winning author and member of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe S. D. Nelson intersperses archival images with his own artwork, inspired by the ledger-art drawings of the nineteenth-century Lakota. Through the art and riveting story, Nelson conveys how Sitting Bull clung to his belief that the Lakota were a free people meant to live, hunt, and die on the Great Plains.

Who Was Ben Franklin?


Dennis Brindell Fradin - 2002
    He was also a statesman, an inventor, a printer, and an author-a man of such amazingly varied talents that some people claimed he had magical powers! Full of all the details kids will want to know, the true story of Benjamin Franklin is by turns sad and funny, but always honest and awe-inspiring.

So You Want to Be President?


Judith St. George - 2000
    George is updated with current facts and new illustrations to include our forty-second president, George W. Bush. There are now three Georges in the catalog of presidential names, a Bush alongside the presidential family tree, and a new face on the endpaper portraiture. Hilariously illustrated by Small, this celebration by St. George shows us the foibles, quirks and humanity of forty-two men who have risen to one of the most powerful positions in the world. Perfect for this election year--and every year!

The Story of Ruby Bridges


Robert Coles - 1995
    Because even if they say those bad things, They don't know what they're doing."This is the true story of an extraordinary 6-year-old who helped shape history when she became the first African-American sent to first grade in an all white school. This moving book captures the courage of a little girl standing alone in the face of racism.

Coat of Many Colors


Dolly Parton - 1994
    The little girl wears it to school proudly, and when the other children laugh, she gives them a quick lesson about what it means to be rich. Judith Sutton's beautiful paintings bring one of Dolly Parton's best-loved songs to life. "The heartfelt verses are imbued with the same genuine, infectiously likeable spirit Parton herself projects." Publishers Weekly

Mama's Bank Account


Kathryn Forbes - 1943
    This bestselling book inspired the play, motion picture, and television series I Remember Mama.

Linnea in Monet's Garden


Christina Björk - 1985
    Now she understands what it means for a painter to be called an Impressionist. This innovative art book for children contains full-color photos of many of Monet's famous paintings.

Laura Ingalls Wilder: A Biography


William Anderson - 1992
    This expertly researched, behind-the-scenes account of Laura’s life chronicles the real events that inspired her to write her stories, and also describes her life after the last Little House book ends.

William Shakespeare & the Globe


Aliki - 1999
    It’s a fun way to learn to read and as a supplement for activity books for childrenFrom Hamlet to Romeo and Juliet to A Midsummer Night's Dream, Shakespeare's celebrated works have touched people around the world. Aliki combines literature, history, biography, archaeology, and architecture in this richly detailed and meticulously researched introduction to Shakespeare's world-his life in Elizabethan times, the theater world, and the Globe, for which he wrote his plays. Then she brings history full circle to the present-day reconstruction of the Globe theater. .

Rachel Carson and Her Book That Changed the World


Laurie Lawlor - 2012
    "Once you are aware of the wonder and beauty of earth, you will want to learn about it," wrote Rachel Carson, the pioneering environmentalist. She wrote Silent Spring, the book that woke people up to the harmful impact humans were having on our planet.