Did you know that John Adams had to coax Thomas Jefferson into writing the Declaration of Independence? It's true. The shy Virginia statesman refused at first, but then went on to author one of our nation's most important and inspiring documents. The third U.S. president, Jefferson was also an architect, inventor, musician, farmer, and-what is certainly the most troubling aspect of his life-a slave owner. Finally, here's a biography for kids that unveils the many facets of this founding father's remarkable and complicated life.
The man who saved the lives of his PT-109 crewmen during WWII and became the 35th president fought-and won-his first battle at the age of two-and-a-half, when he was stricken with scarlet fever. Although his presidency was cut short, our nation's youngest elected leader left an indelible mark on the American consciousness and now is profiled in our Who Was...? series.
Called the 'Great Pathfinder', Daniel Boone is most famous for opening up the West to settlers through Kentucky. A symbol of America's pioneering spirit Boone was a skilled outdoorsman and an avid reader although he never attended school. Sydelle Kramer skillfully recounts Boone's many adventures such as the day he rescued his own daughter from kidnappers.
Every kid has heard of Harry Houdini, the famous magician who could escape from handcuffs, jail cells, and locked trunks. But do they know that the ever-ambitious and adventurous Houdini was also a famous movie star and the first pilot to fly a plane in Australia? This well-told biography is full of the details of Houdini's life that kids will really want to know about!
Before Carl Linnaeus began classifying organisms, before John James Audubon drew birds from the wild, before Charles Darwin proposed his theory of evolution, there lived a thirteen-year-old girl named Maria Merian who loved to draw bugs. With a keen eye and deft hand, she rendered soft green caterpillars, papery-winged moths, and the dazzling, intricate beauty of the butterflies. But drawing these fascinating creatures wasn't enough for Maria; she wanted to understand their small, mysterious lives. Where did they come from? What did they eat? And perhaps most miraculously of all, was there a connection between creeping caterpillars and beautiful butterflies? With no formal training or university education, Maria Merian took on the role of artist, adventurer, and scientist in seventeenth-century Europe-a time when women were rarely allowed responsibilities outside the home, and unusual interests led to accusations of witchcraft. Her intrepid fieldwork and careful observation helped uncover the truth about metamorphosis and changed the course of science forever. The Newbery Honor-winning author and poet Joyce Sidman masterfully paints a riveting portrait of Maria Merian-the girl who drew butterflies, the woman who has been called the world's first ecologist.
Madam C. J. Walker was beloved within her community for her philanthropy and expanding the local black YMCA, but she couldn't have done that if she weren't the first female self-made millionaire and one of the most successful African American business owners ever. Born Sarah Breedlove, she was the first person born free in her family. She married Charles Joseph Walker and became known as Madam C. J. Walker, the name she would later use on her haircare products. After talking with her brothers, who were barbers, and experiencing problems with hair loss, she developed a formula that healed scalp infections. This inspired her to start her own line of hair care products to do things like reduce dandruff, grow longer hair, smooth hair, or prevent baldness. Her company employed thousands of door-to-door saleswomen from all over the United States and the Caribbean. She supported the African American community by making a $1000 contribution for a new YMCA building in Indianapolis, funding scholarships for Tuskegee Institute and Daytona Normal Institute for Girls, and becoming a patron of the arts in the early years of the Harlem Renaissance.
Author Teri Kanefield examines the life of America's famous suffragette, Susan B. Anthony. Anthony was born into a world in which men ruled women: A man could beat his wife, take her earnings, have her committed into an asylum based on his word, and take her children away from her. While the young nation was ablaze with the radical notion that people could govern themselves, "people" were understood to be white and male. Women were expected to stay out of public life and debates. As Anthony saw the situation, "Women's subsistence is in the hands of men, and most arbitrarily and unjustly does he exercise his consequent power." She began her public career as a radical abolitionist, and after the Civil War, she became an international figurehead of the women's suffrage movement.
Aguza el oído y sabrás los secretos de las mujeres más talentosas y temerarias, curiosas, rebeldes y emprendedoras de México, que se atrevieron a romper el molde.
Desobedecer puede ser una buena idea. Ser ordenada siempre es lindo y poderoso, claro, pero salirse del huacal vuelve interesantes las cosas cuando los mandatos son aburridos, cuando no nos dejan movernos a nuestras anchas, sobre todo cuando dañan nuestra alma. En esos casos hay que inventarse oportunidades propias para hacer descubrimientos y brillar como diamantina. Las mujeres de este libro se han reunido para contarte cómo le hicieron, cuánto buscaron hasta salirse con la suya.
Porque la curiosidad no mata al gato. Las féminas, chicas y grandes, siempre terminan averiguando maneras para abrirse paso, aunque el camino esté lleno de piedritas.
Mexicanas que hicieron historia:
Laura Esquivel|Alondra de la Parra|Amalia González Caballero|Ana Gabriela Guevara|Aurora Reyes Carmen Serdán|Carmen Victoria Félix|Elena Garro|Elisa Acuña|Elvia Carrillo Puerto|Esperanza Brito de Martí|Esther Chapa|Eulalia Guzmán|Frida Kahlo|Graciela Iturbide|Hermila Galindo Acosta|Josefa OrtIz de Domínguez|Juana Belem Gutiérrez|Juana Cata|Karla Wheelock|La China Poblana|La Adelita|La Güera Rodríguez|La Malinche|Las Patronas de Veracruz|Laureana Wright de Kleinhans|Leona Vicario|Leonora Carrington|Lila Downs|Lola Beltrán|Lola Álvarez Bravo|Lucha Reyes|Lupita Tovar|Luz González Cosío de López|Lydia Cacho|Macuilxochitzin|Margarita Maza|María Izquierdo|María del Pilar Roldán|María Antonieta Rivas Mercado|María Félix|María del Refugio García|Matilde Montoya|Matilde Rodríguez Cabo|Nahui Ollin|Raquel Dzib Cicero|Rosario Castellanos Rosario Ibarra de Piedra Salma Hayek Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz
Sacagawea was only sixteen when she made one of the most remarkable journeys in American history, traveling 4500 miles by foot, canoe, and horse-all while carrying a baby on her back! Without her, the Lewis and Clark expedition might have failed. Through this engaging book, kids will understand the reasons that today, 200 years later, she is still remembered and immortalized on a golden dollar coin.
For a long time, the main role of First Ladies was to act as hostesses of the White House...until Eleanor Roosevelt. Born in 1884, Eleanor was not satisfied to just be a glorified hostess for her husband, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Eleanor had a voice, and she used it to speak up against poverty and racism. She had experience and knowledge of many issues, and fought for laws to help the less fortunate. She had passion, energy, and a way of speaking that made people listen, and she used these gifts to campaign for her husband and get him elected president-four times! A fascinating historical figure in her own right, Eleanor Roosevelt changed the role of First Lady forever.
A humorist, narrator, and social observer, Mark Twain is unsurpassed in American literature. Best known as the author of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain, not unlike his protagonist, Huck, has a restless spirit. He found adventure prospecting for silver in Nevada, navigating steamboats down the Mississippi, and making people laugh around the world. But Twain also had a serious streak and decried racism and injustice. His fascinating life is captured candidly in this enjoyable biography.
When Portuguese sailor Ferdinand Magellan set sail from Spain in 1519, he believed he could get to the Spice Islands by sailing west through or around the New World. He was right, but what he didn't know was that the treacherous voyage would take him three years and cost him his life.
