Uplifting Stories of Courage and Determination

Pass It On

Alexandra Deford, a precious and precocious girl,

was just eight years old when she died in 1980

following a battle against the debilitating effects of

cystic fibrosis, the number-one genetic killer of

children. Her poignant and uplifting story touched

the hearts of millions when it was first published and

then made into a memorable television movie. A

new introduction contains information on the latest

cystic fibrosis research, and a touching postscript

reveals how the Deford family came to terms with

the loss of Alex. Whenever he speaks, sportswriter

Frank Deford knows people will bring articles for him

to sign. But what makes him happiest is when

someone attends a sports-oriented lecture and

brings a copy of Alex: The Life of a Child for him to

sign. "Invariably, and happily, there's usually

someone at each appearance who either brings that

book or wants to talk about their connection to cystic

fibrosis." Deford says.

A biography of the opera

and concert singer who,

among other achievements,

was the first African-

American soloist to perform

with the Metropolitan

Opera Company in 1955.

Abigail Adams is often referred to as the wife of one

president and the mother of another. Rarely is she

described as a woman in her own right. Although her

primary focus and concerns were in her role as wife

and mother, she lives in history because of her

extraordinary letters to her family and to her friends.

She was a witness to the gathering storm of the

Revolutionary War. She saw the Battle of Bunker Hill

from a hilltop near her home, and soldiers marching

past her door frequently stopped for a drink of water.

Because she was so close to the scene, she was

able to give firsthand reports of the American

Revolution to her husband and other leaders

creating a new government, as she wrote about the

times and the people who played vital roles in the

birth of our nation.

You've gotta learn to defend yourself. Never let your

enemy know what you are feeling. The soldier assigned to

protect Melba Please, God, let me learn how to stop being

a warrior. Sometimes I just need to be a girl. Melba's diary,

on her sixteenth birthday. In 1957 Melba Pattillo turned

sixteen. That was also the year she became a warrior on

the front lines of a civil rights firestorm. Following the

landmark 1954 Supreme Court ruling, Brown v. Board

Education. She was one of nine teenagers chosen to

integrate Little Rock's Central High School. This is her

remarkable story. You will listen to the cruel taunts of her

schoolmates and their parents. You will run with her from

the threat of a lynch mob's rope. You will share her terror

as she dodges lighted sticks of dynamite, and her pain as

she washes away the acid sprayed into her eyes. But

most of all you will share Melba's dignity and courage as

she refuses to back down.

Father Greg Boyle, one of the few people who

don't write off homies as unredeemable souls,

attracted intense media attention in 1992 for his

perseverance in turning gangbangers around.

Fremon was a reporter entirely captivated by

Boyle's charisma and commitment, and she

decided to immerse herself in Boyle's barrio

parish, where the nihilistic credo of kill or be killed

holds sway, though it was somewhat restrained by

Boyle's hands-on intervention. In her chronicle of

Boyle's zealous efforts at fundraising and

organizing to find jobs for the homeboys, Fremon

inserts about ten of their autobiographies.

Subsequently, one of the homies was murdered in

gang vengeance. The consequent brokenness of

the text, punctuated by Father Boyle's empathic

heroism, suitably reflects the jagged violence it

depicts. This is a heartfelt study of the gangland

culture and a tribute to a man who has had a

measure of success redeeming some of its

members.

Paul William "Bear" Bryant

 (September 11, 1913 – January

26, 1983) was an American college football player and coach.

He was best known as the longtime head coach of the University

of Alabama football team. During his 25-year tenure as

Alabama's head coach, he amassed six national championships

and thirteen conference championships. Upon his retirement in

1982, he held the record for most wins as head coach in

collegiate football history with 323 wins. At the University of

Alabama, the Paul W. Bryant Museum, Paul W. Bryant Hall, Paul

W. Bryant Drive and Bryant–Denny Stadium are all named in his

honor. He was also known for his trademark black and white

houndstooth or gingham hat, deep voice, casually leaning up

against the goal post during pre-game warmups, and frequently

holding his rolled-up game plan while on the sidelines.

"When it comes to justice, there is no easy way to

get it. You can't sugarcoat it. You have to take a

stand and say, ,This is not right.'" - Claudette Colvin

On March 2, 1955, an impassioned teenager, fed up

with the daily injustices of Jim Crow segregation,

refused to give her seat to a white woman on a

segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama. Instead of

being celebrated as Rosa Parks would be just nine

months later, fifteen-year-old Claudette Colvin found

herself shunned by her classmates and dismissed

by community leaders. Undaunted, a year later she

dared to challenge segregation again as a key

plaintiff in Browder v. Gayle , the landmark case that

struck down the segregation laws of Montgomery

and swept away the legal underpinnings of the Jim

Crow South

Ironically, this internationally known author of

children's books struggled to learn how to read

when she entered school. Before long however

Cleary had learned to love books, and as a child

she spent a good deal of her time in the public

library. Cleary earned her first B.A. in 1938 from the

University of California at Berkeley. Her second

degree, a B.A. in library science, was bestowed by

the University of Washington in Seattle in 1939.

She worked for a short time as Children's Librarian

in Yakima, Washington, before moving to

California. Cleary began her writing career in her

early thirties. Her stories and especially her

characters, Henry Huggins and Ramona Quimby,

have proven popular with young readers. Her

books have been translated into fourteen

languages and are available in over twenty

countries.

Victor Cruz, the Super Bowl-winning and record-breaking

wide receiver, is best known for his explosive plays and

salsa touchdown celebrations. While his meteoric rise in

the NFL looked like the result of a magical year, it was

actually a lifetime in the making. Raised in Paterson, New

Jersey, Victor overcame numerous setbacks through hard

work, perseverance, and the support of his loving

family#151;from his grandmother who gave him his

signature dance moves; to his late father, a former

firefighter, who introduced him to football and taught him

how to play; to his hard-working, single mother who never

let him give up in the face of a challenge. They all helped

to keep him on the right path, as did his coaches, but

Cruz's journey was never easy. There were academic

struggles, injuries, and more. In this inspiring, never-

before-seen account, Cruz pays tribute to the people and

places that made him the man he is today, recounts his

most defining moments, and illustrates how his hardships

ultimately unleashed his impenetrable will to win

This is the inspiring story of how knuckleballer R. A.

Dickey became one of the game's best pitchers. He had

humble beginnings, and as a child kept a terrible secret.

But at a local prep school, coaches saw talent in him and

fostered his skills as a player. Dickey went on to pitch in

the Olympics while at the University of Tennessee, but his

Major League hopes took a downturn when an X-ray

revealed a major problem with his throwing arm. It would

seem his future in baseball was over before it even began.

But R.A. knew better. Through faith, hope, and

determination, he achieved his dreams and made it into

the major leagues. Now, he's one of the most respected

pitchers in the game, a Cy Young Award winner, and he's

changed the way people view the knuckleball - and

himself. An inspiring true story about beating the odds,

R.A. is proof that with hard work and devotion, anyone

can overcome whatever life throws at them.

The thrilling story of America's most celebrated flyer,

Amelia Earhart. In alternating chapters, Fleming deftly

moves readers back and forth between Amelia's life (from

childhood up until her last flight) and the exhaustive

search for her and her missing plane. With incredible

photos, maps, and handwritten notes from Amelia herself-

-plus informative sidebars tackling everything from the

history of flight to what Amelia liked to eat while flying

(tomato soup)--this unique nonfiction title is tailor-made for

middle graders. Amelia Lost received four starred reviews

and Best Book of the Year accolades from School Library

Journal , Kirkus Reviews , Horn Book Magazine , the

Washington Post , and the New York Times .

This is the memoir of Esther Earl, a 16-

year-old who suffered from terminal thyroid

cancer that metastasized in her lungs. She

was an inspiration for John Green's The

Fault in Our Stars. Esther kept incredible

notes from when she was 10 until her

untimely passing at age 16. Her fears,

wishes, anxieties are all revealed with

incredible sincerity and depth. Esther was

an amazing person and wanted everyone

to share love. She wanted to be treated as

a regular person, without "cancer perks."

The audio version is so moving that some

listeners may want to start over from the

beginning as soon as they finish.

Goldberg not only recounts the important aspects of

Einstein's background, family, and

accomplishments, but also explains the scientist's

major theories. Using well-placed chapter inserts

and diagrams, the author explicates difficult

concepts such as the "Principle of Equivalence,"

"Time Dilation," and "Origins of the Quantum

Hypothesis," and does a masterful job of showing

how Einstein's theories vary from those of other

learned theoreticians, such as Planck and Bohr. Yet

readers are told that Einstein's own wife never really

understood his groundbreaking ideas, and without

extensive scientific background, many students will

have a tough time grasping the theories, even when

they are explained as clearly as they are here.

At age 11, Brooke Ellison was left paralyzed

from the neck down after being hit by an

automobile. Writing together in alternating

chapters, Brooke and her mother, Jean,

document the exhausting efforts and dedication

that it took for Brooke to beat overwhelming

physical odds and finally graduate, with honors,

from Harvard University. The story begins on the

day of the accident and ends triumphantly with

Brooke's graduation speech from college.

Brooke's upbeat account of her college

experience reveals her charming and witty

nature, and Jean's contribution is a testimony to

the profound powers of a mother's love and

unfailing dedication. Although many other

biographies of quadriplegics are available, this

one, written with keen intellect and an open

heart, deserves attention.

In this brilliantly researched and insightful book,

psychologist Eva Fogelman presents compelling

stories of rescuers of Jews during the Holocaust--

and offers a revealing analysis of their

motivations. Based on her extensive experience as

a therapist treating Jewish survivors of the

Holocaust and those who helped them, Fogelman

delves into the psychology of altruism, illuminating

why these rescuers chose to act while others

simply stood by. While analyzing motivations,

Conscience And Courage

 tells the stories of such

little-known individuals as Stefnaia Podgorska

Burzminska, a Polish teenager who hid thirteen

Jews in her home; Alexander Roslan, a dealer in

the black market who kept uprooting his family to

shelter three Jewish children in his care, as well as

more heralded individuals such as Oskar Schindler,

Raoul Wallenberg, and Miep Gies. Speaking to the

same audience that flocked to Steven Spielberg's

Academy Award-winning movie, 

Schindler's List

,

Conscience And Courage

 is the first book to go

beyond the stories to answer the question:

Most people are familiar with the story of

Anne Frank and her diary composed as

she and her Jewish family hid from Nazis

for several years in an office building in the

heart of Amsterdam. Now comes another

side of the story, that of the woman who

bravely served as the Franks' mainstay as

they hid, even though she expected certain

death if caught. Although the Franks were

eventually found and arrested, Miep

fortunately was not taken, and she saved

Anne's diary, a message for posterity.

A funny, highly personal, gorgeously written account

of what it's like to be a 30-year-old man who is told

he has an 80-year-old's disease. "Life is great.

Sometimes, though, you just have to put up with a

little more crap." --Michael J. Fox In September

1998, Michael J. Fox stunned the world by

announcing he had been diagnosed with

Parkinson's disease--a degenerative neurological

condition. In fact, he had been secretly fighting it for

seven years. The worldwide response was

staggering. Fortunately, he had accepted the

diagnosis and by the time the public started grieving

for him, he had stopped grieving for himself. Now,

with the same passion, humor, and energy that Fox

has invested in his dozens of performances over the

last 18 years, he tells the story of his life, his career,

and his campaign to find a cure for Parkinson's.

Temple Grandin was born August 29, 1947 in

Boston, Massachusetts. She is a bestselling author,

doctor and professor of Animal Science at Colorado

State University, and leader of both the animal

welfare and autism advocacy movements. Grandin

was diagnosed with autism in 1950. She was

immediately placed in a structured nursery, had

speech therapy, and had a nanny spend hours

playing turn-based games with her. At the age of

four, she began talking and her progress continued.

In 1970, Grandin received her bachelor's degree in

psychology from Franklin Pierce College in Rindge,

New Hampshire. She received her master's degree

in animal science from Arizona State University in

1975, and in 1989, she received a Ph.D. in animal

science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-

Champaign. Grandin, being a high-functioning

autistic, is widely-known for her work in autism

advocacy.

When Temple Grandin was born, her

parents knew that she was different. Years

later she was diagnosed with autism. While

Temple's doctor recommended a hospital,

her mother believed in her. Temple went to

school instead. Today, Dr. Temple Grandin

is a scientist and professor of animal

science at Colorado State University. Her

world-changing career revolutionized the

livestock industry. As an advocate for

autism, Temple uses her experience as an

example of the unique contributions that

autistic people can make. This compelling

biography complete with Temple's personal

photos takes us inside her extraordinary

mind and opens the door to a broader

understanding of autism.

Jane Goodall, 1934 - Jane Goodall, a well-respected

English zoologist, is famous for her fieldwork with

chimpanzees in Africa. An early interest in African wild

animals and the opportunity, at age 18, to stay on a

friend's farm in Kenya, led her to Dr. Louis Leakey; then

curator of the National Museum of Natural History in

Nairobi. Almost immediately Leakey hired Goodall as his

assistant secretary, and she was soon accompanying

Leakey and his wife on their expeditions. Following

Leakey's suggestion that a field study of some of the

higher primates would be a major contribution to the

understanding of animal behavior, she began studying the

chimpanzees of the Gombe Stream Research Center in

Tanganyika (now Tanzania) in 1960. Although she had no

undergraduate degree, Goodall earned a Ph.D. from

Cambridge University in 1965, based on her first five

years of research at the Gombe Center. After more than

20 years of extensive study and direct contact with wild

chimpanzees in their natural habitat, Goodall continues to

research, teach, and write about primate behavior today.

Hamilton, a 14-year-old aspiring professional surfer from

Kauai, Hawaii, made headlines last fall after she lost her

arm in a shark attack. With the help of writer Berk and

Bundschuh, a pastor whom the teen calls her "spiritual

advisor," the teen offers an upbeat and candid-if

somewhat meandering-chronicle of her life. She opens

with the shark attack, then fills in details before and after

this tragic incident, giving priority to the topics pinpointed

in the book's subtitle. Her fervent faith surfaces often in

her account: her church youth group figures prominently

in her life, she prays before each surfing competition,

she states that "Being tight with God is even more

important to me than surfing" and, in discussing "God's

plan" for her, states, "if I can help other people find hope

in God, then that is worth losing my arm for." Hamilton

offers copious background information about her close-

knit family and her passion for surfing, as well as

expressions of gratitude for the post-attack outpouring of

support and donations from friends and strangers.

For the more than seven million girls--from

knobby-kneed tykes to high school and

college stars--who are tearing across the

country chasing a soccer ball and dreams

of glory, there is one name that eclipses all

others, male or female: Mia Hamm. With

her cheetah like acceleration and lightning-

bolt shot, Hamm broke nearly every record

in her sport, while galvanizing a whole

generation of fans and players. Go for the

Goal is not only the inspiring story of how a

tiny suburban sprite became a global terror

with a ball (and the world) at her feet--it's

also a step-by-step or dribble-by-dribble

guide for any kid with the all-American

dream of making the team and becoming a

champion.

Who was this man who could walk through brick walls

and, with a snap of his fingers, vanish elephants? In these

pages you will meet the astonishing Houdini-magician,

ghost chaser, daredevil, pioneer aviator, and king of

escape artists. No jail cell or straitjacket could hold him!

He shucked off handcuffs as easily as gloves. In this

fresh, witty biography of the most famous bamboozler

since Merlin, Sid Fleischman, a former professional

magician, enriches his warm homage with insider

information and unmasking. Did Houdini really pick the

jailhouse lock to let a fellow circus performer escape?

Were his secrets really buried with him? Was he a bum

magician, as some rivals claimed? How did he manage to

be born in two cities, in two countries, on two continents at

the same instant? Here are the stories of how a

knockabout kid named Ehrich Weiss, the son of an

impoverished rabbi, presto-changoed himself into the

legendary Harry Houdini.

Born a spastic quadriplegic, Rick Hoyt

was written off by numerous doctors,

but his parents, Dick and Judy Hoyt,

were determined to give their son all

the opportunities of a “normal” kid.In

1977, fifteen-year-old Rick asked his

dad to enter a charity race. The twist?

Rick wanted to run it too. Dick had

never run a race before, and the

thought of pushing his son’s wheelchair

while running was daunting. But, once

again, Dick and Rick were determined

to overcome any obstacle. More than

one thousand races later, the devoted

father son duo is affectionately known

worldwide as Team Hoyt and continue

to move people with their trademark

motto: “Yes, you can.”

Bill Gates is many things: the richest

person in the world; the ruthless

businessman who co-founded Microsoft

and led it to domination of the computer

software industry; and now, the leading

global philanthropist. When Gates was born

in 1955, no one in the world owned a

personal computer. A window had a pane of

glass. A mouse was a rodent. As a

teenager, Gates realized how computers

were about to change the world, and made

his fortune by riding that wave; modern

teens look to him as their model of how

technology can be turned into wealth.

"Your time is limited. . . . have the courage to follow

your heart and intuition." -Steve Jobs. From the

start, his path was never predictable. Steve Jobs

was given up for adoption at birth, dropped out of

college after one semester, and at the age of twenty,

created Apple in his parents' garage with his friend

Steve Wozniack. Then came the core and hallmark

of his genius - his exacting moderation for

perfection, his counterculture life approach, and his

level of taste and style that pushed all boundaries. A

devoted husband, father, and Buddhist, he battled

cancer for over a decade, became the ultimate

CEO, and made the world want every product he

touched. Critically acclaimed author Karen

Blumenthal takes us to the core of this complicated

and legendary man while simultaneously exploring

the evolution of computers.

Thought-provoking and profoundly satisfying, this book will

inspire feelings of humility, admiration, and disquietude; in

some readers, it may sow the seeds of humanitarian activism.

As a specialist in infectious diseases, Farmer's goal is nothing

less than redressing the "steep gradient of inequality" in

medical service to the desperately poor. His work establishing

a complex of public health facilities on the central plateau of

Haiti forms the keystone to efforts that now encompass

initiatives on three continents. Farmer and a trio of friends

began in the 1980s by creating a charitable foundation called

Partners in Health (PIH, or Zanmi Lasante in Creole), armed

with passionate conviction and $1 million in seed money from

a Boston philanthropist. Kidder provides anecdotal evidence

that their early approach to acquiring resources for the Haitian

project at times involved a Robin Hood type of "redistributive

justice" by liberating medical equipment from the "rich"

(Harvard) and giving to the "poor" (the PIH clinic).

In this compelling memoir, the 64-year-old

founder of Susan G. Komen for the Cure

mixes details from her soap opera-like life

with facts about breast cancer. Nancy

Goodman of Peoria, Illinois, morphs from a

chubby Jewish girl (in second grade, she

tips the scale at more than 100 pounds) to

a nearly six-foot glamazon. After breast

cancer kills her beautiful 36-year-old sister,

Suzy, Nancy starts the world's largest

breast-cancer charity in her memory. At age

37, she discovers a lump in her own chest.

Nancy gets by with a little help from her

second husband, Norman Brinker, the

casual-dining gazillionaire and a member of

the Susan G. Komen board from its

inception in 1982 until his death last year.

Aung San Suu Kyi returned to Burma in 1988,

after years living and studying abroad, only to

find widespread slaughter of protesters rallying

against the brutal rule of dictator U Ne Win. She

spoke out against him and initiated a nonviolent

movement toward achieving democracy and

human rights. In 1989, the government placed

Suu Kyi under house arrest, and she spent 15 of

the next 21 years in custody. In 1991, her

ongoing efforts won her the Nobel Prize for

Peace, and she was finally released from house

arrest in November 2010

Jason Lester's life as an athlete almost never happened.

When a speeding car ran a red light, a bike ride to the

local video store nearly became Jason's last, sending him

130 feet into the air and ultimately to the hospital with

twenty broken bones. The pain was intense and long

rehabilitation grueling, compounded by the sudden death

of his father (his best friend and mentor) and the

realization that his right arm was paralyzed. Only twelve

years old and struggling to heal amid the grief, Jason

miraculously found the strength to fight his way back.

Without the use of his arm, he refused to give up the

sports he'd grown to love, recommitting himself to life and

ultimately surpassing goals that few dared to set. Running

on Faith reveals how to develop the mind-set of a true

competitor and includes riveting stories of the precarious

and often unforeseen conditions encountered on the race

path--jellyfish-infested waters, suffocating heat, and

blinding sheets of rain. With passion, dedication, and

strength of purpose, Jason shares his experience facing

extreme challenges head-on, gleaning insight from each

trial.

Carson, director of the Martin Luther King Jr. Papers Project, brings

together selections from King's writings, speeches, and recordings

to create this fascinating "autobiography" of the famed civil rights

leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner. The writings trace King's

struggles with religion, philosophy, and the racial politics of the U.S.

They reveal his youthful attraction to Henry David Thoreau's stance

on the moral obligation to resist evil as much as to cooperate with

good, and Mahatma Gandhi's teachings on nonviolent resistance to

oppression. This work offers King's view on a number of thorny

issues; on Rosa Parks and the bus boycott in Birmingham that

launched the civil rights movement, for example, King characterizes

her actions as spontaneous rather than planned, which has been

suggested. He contrasts the racial milieu and tactics needed to

address racism in the North versus the South and sees the Civil

Rights Act of 1964, the culmination of the nonviolent resistance

movement, as "first written in the streets" with the success of the

protest marches. This stunning, passionate collection of writings

also reveals King's impressions of other famous leaders of the time,

including presidents John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson and

activists Stokely Carmichael and Malcolm X.

Nelson Mandela, who emerged from twenty-six years of

political imprisonment to lead South Africa out of apartheid

and into democracy, is perhaps the world's most admired

leader, a man whose life has been led with exemplary

courage and inspired conviction.

Now Anthony Sampson, who has known Mandela since 1951

and has been a close observer of South Africa's political life

for the last fifty years, has produced the first authorized

biography, the most informed and comprehensive portrait to

date of a man whose dazzling image has been difficult to

penetrate. With unprecedented access to Mandela's private

papers (including his prison memoir, long thought to have

been lost), meticulous research, and hundreds of interviews--

from Mandela himself to prison warders on Robben Island,

from Walter Sisulu and Oliver Tambo to Winnie Mandela and

F. W. de Klerk, and many others intimately connected to

Mandela's story--Sampson has composed an enlightening and

necessary story of the man behind the myth.

Award-winning author Andrea Warren

presents a life-changing story of a young

boy's struggle for survival in a Nazi-run

concentration camp. In this Robert F.

Silbert Honor Book, narrated in the voice of

Holocaust survivor Jack Mandelbaum,

readers will glimpse the dark reality of life

during the Holocaust, and how one boy

made it out alive. When twelve-year-old

Jack Mandelbaum is separated from his

family and shipped off to the Blechhammer

concentration camp, his life becomes a

never-ending nightmare. With minimal food

to eat and harsh living conditions

threatening his health, Jack manages to

survive by thinking of his family. Supports

the Common Core State Standards

Kaffir Boy (1984), one of the best books ever written

about apartheid, became a bestseller everywhere

but in South Africa, where it is banned. This

absorbing sequel, about Mathabane's life in the U.S.

since he arrived here at age 18 in 1978 on a tennis

scholarship, describes his painful experiences at

three colleges in one year and in American society

generally. He recalls his editorship of a college

paper, disenchantment with the Columbia School of

Journalism, encounters with racism, threats to his

life, living on a shoestring budget, speaking out

against racism, his decisions to become a writer, live

in North Carolina and marry a white woman, his

success (with Oprah Winfrey's help) in bringing

members of his family on a visit to America and in

arranging for some of his siblings to remain here to

study. Mathabane is a remarkable human being:

responsible, committed, reasonable, level-headed,

humane, understanding and empathetic. He tells a

wonderful, inspiring story and he tells it well.

Breaking Night is the stunning memoir of a young woman

who at age fifteen was living on the streets, and who

eventually made it into Harvard. Liz Murray was born to

loving but drug-addicted parents in the Bronx. In school

she was taunted for her dirty clothing and lice-infested

hair, eventually skipping so many classes that she was

put into a girls' home. At age fifteen, Liz found herself on

the streets when her family finally unraveled. She learned

to scrape by, foraging for food and riding subways all night

to have a warm place to sleep. When Liz's mother died of

AIDS, she decided to take control of her own destiny and

go back to high school, often completing her assignments

in the hallways and subway stations where she slept. Liz

squeezed four years of high school into two, while

homeless; won a New York Times scholarship; and made

it into the Ivy League. Breaking Night is an unforgettable

and beautifully written story of one young woman's

indomitable spirit to survive and prevail, against all odds

.

She was a reluctant feminist. She took on the

most unfeminine of skills--competitive shooting-

-yet very much prided herself on being a lady.

Although she proclaimed that a woman could

do anything a man could and probably do it

better, she refused to align herself with the

women's movement of her day. She was so

famous that she has now entered folk history as

sort of an icon of the Wild West, yet she started

out a poor, abused child. Kasper's book on

Annie Oakley captures these contradictions in

telling her life story. Rich with detail, rife with

anecdote, it not only paints a picture of a

woman with an unusual occupation for her time,

it also colors the whole era of Wild West

performers from Buffalo Bill to Will Rogers.

Michael Oher’s  positive story has been a

welcome respite from all the reported poor

behavior by professional football players over

the years. Now here is Oher's opportunity, with

Yaeger (former associate editor, Sports

Illustrated), to tell his side of the story, which is

especially distinct from the movie, in which a lot

of the real details were left out while other

circumstances were exaggerated to make the

story more dramatic. For example, in the movie

Oher was a football novice with difficulty

learning plays; in actuality, as Oher reminds us

here, he had been playing for years and knew

the game very well by the time he met the

Touhys. Verdict Recommended. A corrective to

the movie, yet still an inspirational book for fans

of Oher and the Touhys.

Schaap's chronicle of Jesse Owens's journey to and

glorious triumph at the 1936 Berlin Olympics is snappy

and dramatic, with an eye for the rousing climax, through

curiously slight on follow-through. Starting with Owens as

the well-feted ex-athlete in the 1950s, Schaap (an ESPN

anchor and author of Cinderella Man) flashes back to

Owens's childhood in 1920s Cleveland, where junior high

coach Charles Riley spotted his astounding physique and

near limitless potential for track and field. Owens seems

so perfectly made for running and jumping that the

following years of ever-increasing athletic and popular

success are less exciting than preordained. By the time

the "Ebony Antelope" (as one of many adoring

newspapermen had anointed him) was ready for Berlin,

his success was practically guaranteed. The real drama of

Schaap's book, which surprisingly skimps on Owens the

person, comes in the politically fractious run-up to Berlin

(for the ceremony-obsessed Hitler, "a fascist fantasy come

true").

In this fascinating, suspenseful first person account of his

capture by Somali pirates, which dominated news media

for five days in April 2009, captain Phillips brings the

growing pirate threat (up 20 percent in 2009's first quarter)

to life. An experienced Merchant Marine, Phillips was

recently made captain of the cargo vessel Maersk

Alabama, and, like all captains, was weary of the threat

from pirates: "since 2005. captains had been going out

fifty, then one hundred. then six hundred miles" to avoid

the Somali coast. His feeling that "if pirates got onboard, it

was all over" proves unfortunately correct; it took the

armed criminals just five minutes to board the ship and

take the bridge. Phillips has a sailor's penchant for the

dramatic, which he puts to good use alternating between

his own five-day ordeal-replete with Navy SEALs and a

daring escape attempt-and the plight of his family in

Vermont, watching the drama unfold on cable news.

Despite his harrowing experience, Phillips stays afloat

with steadfast faith and an unfailing sense of humor that

are, ultimately, rewarded. Phillips's story is not just riveting

and timely, but also an informative, heartening look at

perhaps the least-celebrated branch of the U.S. military,

the Merchant Marines.

The whole world held its breath when Christopher

Reeve struggled for life on Memorial Day, 1995. On the

third jump of a riding competition, Reeve was thrown

headfirst from his horse in an accident that broke his

neck and left him unable to move or breathe. In the

years since then, Reeve has not only survived, but has

fought for himself, for his family, and for the hundreds of

thousands of people with spinal cord injuries in the

United States and around the world.  And he has written

Still Me , the heartbreaking, funny, courageous, and

hopeful story of his life.

The Autobiography of a Boy of Summer

Who Became a Man for All Seasons

Before Barry Bonds, before Reggie

Jackson, before Hank Aaron, baseball's

stars had one undeniable trait in common:

they were all white. In 1947, Jackie

Robinson broke that barrier, striking a

crucial blow for racial equality and

changing the world of sports forever. I

Never Had It Made is Robinson's own

candid, hard-hitting account of what it

took to become the first black man in

history to play in the major leagues.

"For forty years, Fred Rogers has been telling

children and the rest of us that he likes us

just the way we are. No one else in our lives

gives us that message. Now, in 

Mister Rogers'

Neighborhood

, fifteen essayists show how

deeply, and in how many ways, the message

has registered. Starting with satirist Bob

Garfield's hilarious conversion from Rogers

Rejectionism to Rogers Rebirth, through

cellist YoYo Ma's respect for Fred's musical

messages, through various Fredwatchers'

reactions to the depth and honesty of his

work, this collection is a reminder of the

many and varied lives Fred Rogers has

touched, kept sane, kept steady and

centered. The book is testimony to this fact:

after two score years on television, Fred

Rogers remains the best friend America's

families ever had."

Jordan Romero climbed Mount Everest at

age thirteen-and he didn't stop there. In this

inspiring young adult memoir, he tells how

he achieved such great heights. On May

22, 2010, at the age of thirteen, American

teenager Jordan Romero became the

youngest person to climb to the summit of

Mount Everest. At fifteen, he became the

youngest person to reach the summits of

the tallest mountains on each of the seven

continents. In this energizing memoir for

young adults, Jordan, now seventeen,

recounts his experience, which started as a

spark of an idea at the age of nine and,

many years of training and hard work later,

turned into a dream come true.

The story of TR, a New York aristocrat and

prominent Republican whose strong will

and likeable, robust personality combined

to get him elected to two terms as president

of the United States. After holding various

important positions, including secretary of

the Navy, Governor of New York, and vice

president of the United States, he became

president in 1901. Rancher, writer,

conservationist, and leader of the Rough

Riders in the Spanish-American War,

Roosevelt led an exciting life that Meltzer

makes jump off the pages.

Convinced that what she

wanted from life could only

be attained by "the

opportunity for doing

something useful," Eleanor

seized every chance

afforded her by her position

as wife of the president to

work for peace and

prosperity both at home and

overseas.

This is the definitive biography of the world’s most famous

writer. J.K. Rowling's meteoric rise to worldwide

superstardom and bestseller status is now the stuff of

tabloid legend – how, as a single mother, she would spend

hours in a cafe in Edinburgh, nursing a single coffee and a

glass of water while she wrote the first Harry Potter novel

that would bring her fame and fortune. Creator of the

most famous and best-loved character in contemporary

fiction, J.K. Rowling is also the author of her own escape

from an unhappy marriage and a depressing existence on

the verge of destitution. The acclaimed celebrity

biographer Sean Smith goes behind the headlines and

hype to trace the life story of this phenomenal woman who

has brought joy and inspiration to millions of readers

around the world. He also reveals many of the sources

and origins of the books drawn from her early life.

The Olympic gold medalist and starting

goalkeeper for the U.S. women's national

soccer team gives readers behind-the-

scenes details of her life on and off the

field. Solo offers a fearless female role

model for the next generation, driven to

succeed on her own terms. Young fans will

truly be inspired by Hope's repeated

triumphs over adversity. Her relentless spirit

has molded her into the person she is

today--one of the most charismatic athletes

in America. A huge player in the Summer

2012 Olympic Games, Hope shares her

inside story in her own words.

In May 2002, Tillman walked away from his $3.6

million NFL contract to enlist in the United States

Army. He was deeply troubled by 9/11, and he felt a

strong moral obligation to join the fight against al-

Qaeda and the Taliban. Two years later, he died on a

desolate hillside in southeastern Afghanistan. Though

obvious to most of the two dozen soldiers on the

scene that a ranger in Tillman's own platoon had fired

the fatal shots, the Army aggressively maneuvered to

keep this information from Tillman's wife, other family

members, and the American public for five weeks

following his death. During this time, President Bush

repeatedly invoked Tillman's name to promote his

administration's foreign policy. Long after Tillman's

nationally televised memorial service, the Army

grudgingly notified his closest relatives that he had

"probably" been killed by friendly fire while it

continued to dissemble about the details of his death

and who was responsible.

Thorpe spent his life running-running away from

school, running on the baseball diamond, running

the football, or running to win both the pentathlon

and the decathlon in the 1912 Olympics in

Stockholm. His accomplishments, his kindness and

consideration of others, his defeats, and his

exploitation are related in first-person narration, from

his childhood on an Oklahoma reservation to the

loss of his Olympic medals for playing on a

professional minor-league baseball team. Readers

learn about his athletic performances (some related

play by play), his triumphs, his friendships, and his

hardships through the use of dialogue and

description. The trust that Thorpe had in others and

his own perseverance show both his personal

weaknesses and strengths.

History will remember Desmond Tutu, who has

been called South Africa's Martin Luther King, Jr.,

as a great leader in the struggle against apartheid.

In this new biography, which includes original

quotations from the author's interviews with Tutu,

readers will follow the steady progress of a boy

and man who has held an irrepressible faith in

humankind and his God. They will learn about his

family, schooling, important mentors, and

extraordinary career trajectory in South Africa and

abroad. Now retired, Tutu's accomplishments and

contributions to the world can be fully appreciated.

The clear explanation of the policy of apartheid,

how it affected Tutu and his family, and how he

helped to bring it crashing down will affect and

inform students as no history alone can.

During face-to-face confrontations with

South African leaders and violent

protests in the streets, Tutu maintained

his faith in the power of peace, and when

appointed to head the Truth and

Reconciliation Commission, Tutu seized

upon it as an instrument of healing and

redemption. Through his moral example

and his lyrical command of language, he

has successfully appealed to the

conscience of the world and brought a

whole new meaning to the phrase

"human rights."

Born without arms or legs, Nick Vujicic overcame his

disabilities to live an independent, rich, fulfilling, and

"ridiculously good" life while serving as a role model for

anyone seeking true happiness. Now an internationally

successful motivational speaker, Nick eagerly spreads his

central message: the most important goal is to find your

life's purpose and to never give up, despite whatever

difficulties or seemingly impossible odds stand in your

way. Nick tells the story of his physical disabilities and the

emotional battle he endured while learning to deal with

them as a child, teen, and young adult. "

Weihenmayer is an extraordinary individual,

adventurer, and athlete. On their own, his exploits as

a mountain climber would be sufficient material for an

exciting book, but there's an additional element

Weihenmayer is blind. He began to lose his sight as a

child, owing to a degenerative eye disorder, and was

totally blind by his teens. Added to this trauma was

the death of his mother in an automobile accident.

The onset of blindness and the loss of a beloved

parent might have destroyed a less resilient

individual, but Weihenmayer has been able to turn his

frustrations and fears into positive accomplishments.

He has scaled the 3000' wall of El Capitan in

Yosemite, made it to the top of Argentina's

Aconcagua, climbed the vertical ice wall of Alberta,

Canada's Polar Circus, and plans an ascent of Mt.

Everest in March 2001 Weihenmayer recounts all of

these climbing experiences as well as his childhood

struggle to deal with the onset of blindness and his

efforts to obtain employment.

When the Taliban took control of the Swat Valley in

Pakistan, one girl spoke out. Malala Yousafzai refused to

be silenced and fought for her right to an education. On

Tuesday, October 9, 2012, when she was fifteen, she

almost paid the ultimate price. She was shot in the head at

point-blank range while riding the bus home from school,

and few expected her to survive. Instead, Malala's

miraculous recovery has taken her on an extraordinary

journey from a remote valley in northern Pakistan to the

halls of the United Nations in New York. At sixteen, she has

become a global symbol of peaceful protest and the

youngest nominee ever for the Nobel Peace Prize.