Blind since the age of three, young Louis Braille wanted to be able to read. He spent every spare moment punching holes in paper with a stylus until, by the age of 15, he had invented his own alphabet. This vivid biography, written by an award-winning author, allows young listeners the opportunity to identify with and to appreciate a real life hero.
Ruth Gruener was a hidden child during the Holocaust. At the end of the war, she and her parents were overjoyed to be free. But their struggles as displaced people had just begun.
In war-ravaged Europe, they waited for paperwork for a chance to come to America. Once they arrived in Brooklyn, they began to build a new life, but spoke little English. Ruth started at a new school and tried to make friends -- but continued to fight nightmares and flashbacks of her time during World War II. The family's perseverance is a classic story of the American dream, but also illustrates the difficulties that millions of immigrants face in the aftermath of trauma. This is a gripping and human account of a survivor's journey forward with timely connections to refugee and immigrant experiences worldwide today.With a foreword by Alan Gratz, New York Times bestselling author of Refugee.
As his parents' shouting tears through the walls to the room where he is supposed to be sleeping, young Neil Waldman buries his face in his pillow and tries to swallow his tears. The trauma of his parents' fighting rips at him, but it will also open the path to Neil's career as an artist. Seeking refuge from a turbulent home life, Neil and his three siblings turn to the world of creativity. Their mother's book from an art museum in Russia is all the children need to set fire to their imaginations. And from there, drawing and painting become much more than pleasurable diversions-they become lifelines of hope that allow the youths to believe that there is lasting beauty in the world. Recipient of the ALA Notable and Parents' Choice Awards, Waldman has written and illustrated more than 50 books for children. Narrator George Guidall delivers a powerful performance of the author's engaging memoir.
Lotte Reiniger (1899-1981) was a German film director and animator best known for The Adventures of Prince Achmed, which was released in 1926 and is the oldest surviving animated movie. (It came out a full eleven years before Disney's Snow White!) As a little kid, Reiniger loved reading fairytales and fell in love with puppetry. At school, she learned about paperschnitte, or papercuts, which helped her create her signature style of silhouettes. She grew up to make more than forty films throughout her long career, most of which were fairytales that used her stop-film animation technique of hand-cut silhouettes. Reiniger is now seen as the foremost pioneer of silhouette animation and the inventor of an early form of the multiplane camera.
From the award-winning author and illustrator of BEFORE SHE WAS HARRIET comes an original and moving perspective of the Great Migration, as seen through the eyes of the young girl Ruth Ellen, whose family journeys from North Carolina to New York City.
In 1953, Esref Armagan was born completely blind to a poor family in Istanbul, Turkey. He received no formal education, and spent his childhood days in his father's shop where he developed the curiousity to create and draw. He experienced the world through touch, and learned to visually reproduce his surroundings, including color, shadows, and perspective, with his hands. The blind artist's story will be an inspiration to young artists of all abilities.
"The author is to be commended for sharing the story of this largely unknown painter in this well-written, entertaining, and inspiring book."-Stephanie Kieszak-Holloway, president of the Georgia Organization of Parents of Blind Children
Born into the Northern Paiute tribe of Nevada in 1844, Sarah Winnemucca straddled two cultures: the traditional life of her people, and the modern ways of her grandfather's white friends. Sarah was smart and good at languages, so she was able to link the worlds. As she became older, this made her a great leader. Sarah used condemning letters, fiery speeches, and her autobiography, "Life Among the Piutes, "to provide detailed accounts of her people's turmoil through years of starvation, unjust relocations, and violent attacks. With sweeping illustrations and extensive backmatter, including hand-drawn maps, a chronology, archival photographs, an author's notes, and additional resource information, Deborah Kogan Ray offers a remarkable look at an underrepresented historical figure.
Winner of the American Library Association's 2021 Asian/Pacific American Award for Best Picture Book!
An inspiring picture-book biography of animator Tyrus Wong, the Chinese American immigrant responsible for bringing Disney's Bambi to life.
Before he became an artist named Tyrus Wong, he was a boy named Wong Geng Yeo. He traveled across a vast ocean from China to America with only a suitcase and a few papers. Not papers for drawing--which he loved to do--but immigration papers to start a new life. Once in America, Tyrus seized every opportunity to make art, eventually enrolling at an art institute in Los Angeles. Working as a janitor at night, his mop twirled like a paintbrush in his hands. Eventually, he was given the opportunity of a lifetime--and using sparse brushstrokes and soft watercolors, Tyrus created the iconic backgrounds of Bambi.
Julie Leung and Chris Sasaki perfectly capture the beautiful life and work of a painter who came to this country with dreams and talent--and who changed the world of animation forever.
National Book Award finalist Elizabeth Partridge reveals the life and work of Frederick Law Olmsted, the designer of Central Park, the United States Capitol building's landscape, and more.
Nobody could get Frederick Law Olmsted to sit still. He was filled with energy, adventure, and dreams of changing the world. As a boy, he found refuge in the peace and calm of nature, and later as an adult, he dreamed of designing and creating access to parks for a growing and changing America. When New York City held a contest for the best park design for what would become Central Park, Olmsted won and became the father of landscape architecture. He went on to design parks across America, including Yosemite National Park and even the grounds for the United States Capitol.
National Book Award finalist Elizabeth Partridge brings her renowned lyricism and meticulous research to the visionary who brought parks to the people.
Go beyond the St. Patrick's Day symbols of shamrocks and leprechauns and hear the story of a man determined to share the message of salvation with the people who had made him a slave. When Patrick was a young boy, pirates invaded his home and made him a slave on the island known today as Ireland. While there, he recalled the Bible stories that his father had told him and dedicated his life to the Lord. Although he later escaped and returned home, he knew the Lord was calling him back to share the gospel with his captors. Your children will be inspired by the story of this courageous man who returned to Ireland with the gospel despite great opposition.
These selections will inspire an enthusiastic love of country and will create a pronounced regard for the ideals so sacred to all Americans. They include: "The Man without a Country" by Edward Everett Hale, "Washington" by Nina Moore Tiffany, "David Crockett, Defender of the Alamo" by Charles Fletcher Allen, "Lincoln: The Man of Sorrows" by Major Stephen Brice, "What a Boy Saw of the Civil War with Glimpses of General Lee" by Leighton Parks, "A Message to Garcia" by Elbert Hubbard.
