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.
Marco Polo was seventeen when he set out for China . . . and forty-one when he came back! More than seven hundred years ago, Marco Polo traveled from the medieval city of Venice to the fabled kingdom of the great Kublai Khan, seeing new sights and riches that no Westerner had ever before witnessed. But did Marco Polo experience the things he wrote about . . . or was it all made-up? Young readers are presented with the facts in this entertaining, highly readable Who Was . . . ? biography with black-and-white artwork by John O’Brien.
As a young boy, Henry Ford was fascinated by technology andhow objects worked. His childhood interests led him to leave theFord family farm in Michigan in search of a career with machinery,and the rest is automotive and economic history. TIME For Kids Biographies help make a connection between thelives of past heroes and the events of today. Henry Ford made carsaffordable, turning them into the primary means of travel forAmericans. His innovations, including the assembly line, are stillbenefiting us today.
Put on your blue suede shoes and get ready for another addition to the Who Was…? series! The King could not have come from humbler origins: Born in Tupelo, Mississippi, during the Depression, he grew up with the blues music of the rural South, the gospel music of local churches, and the country-western classics. But he forged a sound all his own—and a look that was all his own, too. With curled lip, swiveling hips, and greased pompadour, Elvis changed popular music forever, ushering in the age of rock and roll. Geoff Edgers’s fascinating biography of this icon of American pop culture includes black and- white illustrations on nearly every spread.
Clara Barton is most renowned as the Civil War nurse who laterfounded the Red Cross. Yet in everything she did, Clara strove tomake a difference. This important biography highlights many of herlesser-known feats, including her early teaching career, work inthe U.S. Patent Office, and unceasing fight for women’s rights.There are also sidebars on kids’ games, Civil War Medicine, MysteryPerson (Florence Nightingale), Red Cross fast facts, and Glen Echo(Clara’s home, which is now a National Historic Site)—as well as aninterview with Bonnie McElveen Hunter, Chairman of the American RedCr
Like Michelangelo, Galileo is another Renaissance great known just by his first name--a name that is synonymous with scientific achievement. Born in Pisa, Italy, in the sixteenth century, Galileo contributed to the era's great rebirth of knowledge. He invented a telescope to observe the heavens. From there, not even the sky was the limit! He turned long-held notions about the universe topsy turvy with his support of a sun-centric solar system. Patricia Brennan Demuth offers a sympathetic portrait of a brilliant man who lived in a time when speaking scientific truth to those in power was still a dangerous proposition.
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 and illustrated throughout with beautiful black-and-white line drawings. Illustrated by John O'Brien. Cover Illustration by Nancy Harrison.
Born in 1925, Maria Tallchief spent part of her childhood on an Osage reservation in Oklahoma. With the support of her family and world-renowned choreographer George Balanchine, she rose to the top of her art form to become America's first prima ballerina. Black-and-white illustrations provide visual sidebars to the history of ballet while taking readers through the life of this amazing dancer.
