"Jacqueline Woodson, one of today's finest writers, tells the moving story of her childhood in mesmerizing verse. Raised in South Carolina and New York, Woodson always felt halfway home in each place. In vivid poems, she shares what it was like to grow up as an African American in the 1960s and 1970s, living with the remnants of Jim Crow and her growing awareness of the Civil Rights movement. Touching and powerful, each poem is both accessible and...

"As a hurricane gathered in the Caribbean, blue skies covered Galveston, Texas. Scientists knew a storm was coming. But none of them were able to prepare Galveston for the force of the hurricane that hit on September 8, 1900. The water from the storm surge pulled houses off their foundations, and the winds toppled telephone poles and trees like toothpicks. And amid the chaos, Galveston's residents did all they could to rescue one another. From the...

From 14-year-old Joseph Dunn who was the lone survivor of the Shark Attacks of 1916, to 9-year-old Mike Kramer who, with the help of his quick-thinking parents, survived the Peshtigo fire of 1871 (which took place on the very same day in history as the Great Chicago Fire!), to the 13-year-old girl who survived a terrifying attack by a box jellyfish, this is a collection of unforgettable narrative non-fiction stories of unimaginable destruction --...

"April 13, 1970: Two hundred thousand miles from Earth and counting, an explosion rips through Jim Lovell's spacecraft. The crippled ship hurtles toward the moon at three times the speed of sound, losing power and leaking oxygen into space. Lovell and his crew were two days from the dream of a lifetime - walking on the surface of moon. Now, they will count themselves lucky to set foot on Earth again. From "Houston, we've had a problem" to the final...

As the first female African-American principal dancer at the American Ballet Theatre, Misty Copeland has been breaking down all kinds of barriers in the world of dance. But when she first started dancing -- at the late age of thirteen -- no one would have guessed the shy, underprivileged girl would one day make history in her field. Her road to excellence was not easy -- a chaotic home life, with several siblings and a single mother, was a stark contrast...

"In the early 18th century the American prairies shook under the hooves of nearly 30 million bison. Fast as a horse, tall as a person, and heavier than both combined, they roamed from coast to coast. A century later, people struggled to find a single one left alive. How did the great herds disappear, and what will it take to bring them back?"--From the publisher's web site.