Search results for ""chicago review press""

For more than 75 years, Catwoman has forged her own path in a clear-cut world of stalwart heroes, diabolical villains and damsels in distress. Sometimes a thief, sometimes a vigilante, sometimes neither and sometimes both, the mercurial Catwoman gleefully defies classification. Her relentless independence across comic books, television and film appearances set her apart from the rest of the superhero world. When female characters were limited to little more than romantic roles, Catwoman used her feminine wiles to manipulate Batman and escape justice at every turn. When male villains dominated Gotham on the small screen, Catwoman entered the mix and outshone them all. When female-led comics were few and far between, Catwoman headlined her own series for over 20 years. True to her nature, Catwoman stole the show everywhere she appeared, regardless of the medium. But her unique path had its downsides as well. Her existence on the periphery of the superhero world made her expendable, and she was prone to lengthy absences. Her villainous origins also made her susceptible to sexualized and degrading depictions from her primarily male creators in ways that most conventional heroines didn't face. Exploring the many incarnations of this cultural icon offers a new perspective on the superhero genre and showcases the fierce resiliency that has made Catwoman a fan favorite for decades.

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A Notable Social Studies Trade Book for Young People 2018 When 14-year-old Florence Kelly and 11-year-old Russell Park left their hometowns for summer vacations in Europe in 1939, they considered themselves awfully lucky. Many of their friends’ families were struggling during the Great Depression and couldn’t afford fancy trips. But the young pair would soon face life-threatening troubles of their own as it became clear German dictator Adolf Hitler was intent on invading neighboring countries. With tensions high, Florence, Russell, and their families cut their holidays short as many Americans scrambled to book passage back to the States. Safely aboard the luxurious passenger liner the S.S. Athenia, travelers settled in and breathed a sigh of relief. Surely, it was believed, the sleek, menacing German U-boats lurking in the Atlantic Ocean would never attack a passenger ship . . . would they? Torpedoed! vividly re-creates the events surrounding the attack on the Athenia, the first ship lost in the battle of the Atlantic. Through firsthand accounts, interviews with survivors, and powerful photos, award-winning author Cheryl Mullenbach brings to life the prewar environment in America and Europe, the anxious days leading up to the surprise attack, the frantic rush to escape the sinking ship, and the long, terrifying night that Russell, Florence, and others spent in churning lifeboats battling the elements and imagining the worst. At once a gripping adventure story and a rich resource for history lovers, Torpedoed! provides page-turning thrills and inspiring real-life examples of courage and resourcefulness in the toughest of circumstances.

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Elswyth Thane is best known for her Williamsburg series, seven novels published between 1943 and 1957 that follow several generations of two families from the American Revolution to World War II. Dawn’s Early Light is the first novel in the series. In it, Colonial Williamsburg comes alive. Thane centers her novel around four major characters: the Aristrocratic St. John Sprague, who becomes George Washington’s aide; Regina Greensleeves, a Virginia beauty spoiled by a season in London; Julian Day, a young schoolmaster who arrives from England on the eve of the war and initially thinks of himself as a Tory; and Tibby Mawes, one of his less fortunate pupils, saddled with an alcoholic father and an indigent mother. But we also see Washington, Jefferson, Lafayette, Greene, Patrick Henry, Francis Marion, and the rest of that brilliant galaxy playing their roles not as historical figures but as men. We see de Kalb’s gallant death under a cavalry charge at Camden. We penetrate to the swamp-encircled camp which was Marion’s stronghold on the Peedee. We watch the cat-and-mouse game between Cornwallis and Lafayette, which ended in Cornwallis’s unlucky stand at Yorktown. Dawn’s Early Light is the human story behind our first war for liberty, and of the men and women loving and laughing through it to the dawn of a better world.

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The 1856 presidential race was the most violent peacetime election in American history. War between proslavery and antislavery settlers raged in Kansas; a congressman shot an Irish immigrant at a Washington hotel; and another congressman beat a US senator senseless on the floor of the Senate. But amid all the violence, the campaign of the new Republican Party, headed by famed explorer John C. FrÉmont, offered a ray of hope: a major party dedicated to limiting the spread of slavery. For the first time, women and African Americans actively engaged in a presidential contest, and the candidate’s wife, Jessie Benton FrÉmont, played a central role in both planning and executing strategy, and was a public face of the campaign. Even enslaved blacks in the South took hope from FrÉmont’s crusade.The 1856 campaign was also run against the backdrop of a country on the move, with settlers continuing to spread westward facing unimagined horrors, a terrible natural disaster that took hundreds of lives in the South, and one of the most famous Supreme Court cases in history, which set the stage for the Civil War. FrÉmont lost, but his strong showing in the North proved that a sectional party could win a national election, blazing the trail for Abraham Lincoln’s victory four years later.

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The Clash thought they could change the world. They never did, but they created some of the greatest rock music of all time in the attempt.Clash interviews were mesmerizing. Infused with the messianic spirit of punk, the Clash engaged with the press like no rock group before or since, treating interviews almost as addresses to the nation. Their pronouncements were welcomed but were hardly uncritically reported. The Clash’s back pages are voluminous, crackle with controversy, and constitute a snapshot of a uniquely thoughtful and fractious period in modern history. Included in this compendium are the Clash’s encounters with the most brilliant music writers of their time, including Lester Bangs, Nick Kent, Mikal Gilmore, Chris Salewicz, Charles Shaar Murray, Mick Farren, Kris Needs, and Lenny Kaye.Whether it be their audience with the (mainly) simpatico likes of punk fanzine Sniffin’ Glue, their testy encounters with the correspondents of pious UK weeklies like New Musical Express, Melody Maker, and Sounds, or their friendlier but no less eyebrow-raising conversations with US periodicals like Creem and Rolling Stone, the Clash consistently created copy that lived up to their sobriquet “The Only Band That Matters.”

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In terms of sheer dirt, three baseball scandals rise to the top: Shoeless Joe and the Black Sox, the 1985 Pittsburgh drug trials, and the steroid era. The former and latter have been covered extensively. Yet there has never been a book detailing the biggest drug trials in baseball history. The Pittsburgh Cocaine Seven tells the whole story in all its shocking details. The MLB participants were among the game’s elite, but most of the guys who took the fall for these superstars were just average fans, not heavy hitters or major drug dealers. In 1985, it seemed the league was poised to implement a drug-testing policy for the players. Of course, that didn’t happen, and because of this inaction, the steroid era came along. The Pittsburgh Cocaine Seven is a prescient and compelling story and a necessary read for any baseball fan today.

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An Italian immigrant who spoke little English and struggled to scrape together a living on her primitive family farm outside Chicago, Sabella Nitti was arrested in 1923 for the murder of her missing husband. Within two months, she was found guilty and became the first woman ever sentenced to hang in Chicago. Journalist Emilie Le Beau Lucchesi leads readers through Sabella’s sensational case, showing how, with no evidence and no witnesses, she was the target of an obsessed deputy sheriff and the victim of a faulty legal system. She was also—to the men who convicted her and the reporters fixated on her—ugly. For that unforgiveable crime, the media painted her as a hideous, dirty, and unpredictable immigrant, almost an animal.Lucchesi brings to life the sights and sounds of 1920s Chicago—its then-rural outskirts, downtown halls of power, and headline-making crimes and trials, including those of two other women (who would inspire the musical and film Chicago) also accused of killing the men in their lives. But Sabella’s fellow inmates Beulah and Belva were beautiful, charmed the all-male juries, and were quickly acquitted, raising doubts among many Chicagoans about the fairness of the “poor ugly immigrant’s” conviction.Featuring an ambitious and ruthless journalist who helped demonize Sabella through her reports, and the brilliant, beautiful, twenty-three-year-old lawyer who helped humanize her with a jailhouse makeover, Ugly Prey is not just a page-turning courtroom drama but also a thought-provoking look at the intersection of gender, ethnicity, class, and the American justice system.

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When a little foal with a white upside-down exclamation point on her forehead was born one morning in Kentucky, the heart of America’s horse racing region, problems mounted quickly. Rejected by her mother, the filly would need to be accepted and nursed by another mare. As she grew, the tall, knock-kneed girl remained skinny and scruffy, with paltry muscles. Considered an “ugly duckling,” she was unsuitable as a champion racehorse, her owner proclaimed, and must be sold. But two days before the sale, an examination revealed a medical condition—now she was impossible to sell! What would become of this problem filly?Alexandra the Great tells one of the greatest underdog tales in American sports—the story of Rachel Alexandra, who grew up to become one of the most remarkable racehorses in history. Despite dominating every filly her age, her owner refused to let her compete against male horses. When a new owner saw her potential and raced her against bigger, stronger males, Rachel Alexandra thrived and went on to win the Preakness, the first filly to do so in 85 years, and the Woodward, a feat never before achieved by a filly. Having grown into a strong, muscular, dominating athlete, Rachel Alexandra was named 2009 Horse of the Year, broke records, graced the pages of Vogue magazine, and showed people around the world exactly what it means to “run like a girl.” Including vivid details gleaned from interviews with Rachel Alexandra’s owners, veterinarian, beloved jockey Calvin Borel, and more, Alexandra the Great gives readers an exciting and emotional look at both the humans and horses who pour their hearts and souls into the world of Thoroughbred training and racing.

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The Who were a mass of contradictions. They brought intellect to rock but were the darlings of punks. They were the quintessential studio act yet were also the greatest live attraction in the world. They perfectly meshed on stage and displayed a complete lack of personal chemistry offstage.Along with great live shows and supreme audio experiences, the Who provided great copy. During the 1960s and ’70s, Pete Townshend, messianic about contemporary popular music and its central importance in the lives of young people, gave sprawling interviews in which he alternately celebrated and deplored what he saw in the “scene.” Several of these interviews have come to be considered classic documents of the age. Roger Daltrey, Keith Moon, and John Entwistle joined in. Even when the Who were non-operational or past their peak, their interviews continued to be compelling: changes in allegiances and social mores left the band members freer to talk about sex, drug-taking, business, and in-fighting.By collecting interviews with Who members from across fi ve decades, conducted by the greatest rock writers of their generation—Barry Miles, Jonathan Cott, Charles Shaar Murray, John Swenson, and Greil Marcus among them—The Who on The Who provides the full, fractious story of a fascinating band.

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Maceo Parker’s signature style became the lynchpin of James Brown's band when he and his brother Melvin joined the Hardest Working Man in Show Business in 1964. That style helped define Brown’s brand of funk, and the phrase “Maceo, I want you to blow!” became part of the lexicon of black music. He took time off from James Brown to play with George Clinton’s P-funk collective and with Bootsy’s Rubber Band; he also formed his own band, Maceo and All the King’s Men, whose records are cult favorites among funk aficionados. Here Maceo tells his own warm and astonishing story, from his Southern upbringing to his career touring the world and playing to adoring fans. Maceo has long called his approach to the saxophone “2% jazz, 98% funky stuff.” Now, on the eve of Maceo’s 70th birthday, in prose as lively and funky as his saxophone playing, here is the definitive story of one of the funkiest musicians alive.

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Long before George Washington was a president or general, he was a sportsman. Born in 1732, he had a physique and aspirations that were tailor made for his age, one in which displays of physical prowess were essential to recognition in society. At six feet two inches and with a penchant for rambunctious horse riding, what he lacked in formal schooling he made up for in physical strength, skill, and ambition. Virginia colonial society rewarded men who were socially adept, strong, graceful, and fair at play. Washington’s memorable performances on the hunting field and on the battlefield helped crystallize his contribution to our modern ideas about athleticism and chivalry, even as they also highlight the intimate ties between sports and war. Washington’s actions, taken individually and seen by others as the core of his being, helped a young nation bridge the old to the new and the aristocrat to the republican.Author Philip G. Smucker, a fifth-great-grandnephew of George Washington, uses his background as a war correspondent, sports reporter, and amateur equestrian to weave an insightful tale based upon his own travels in the footsteps and hoofprints of Washington as a surveyor, sportsman, and field commander. As often as possible, he saddles up and charges off to see what Washington’s woods, byways, and battlefields look like from atop a saddle. Riding with George is “boots-in-stirrups” storytelling that unspools Washington’s rise to fame in a never-before-told yarn. It shows how a young Virginian’s athleticism and Old World chivalry propelled him to become a model of right action and good manners for a fledgling nation.

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Americans have come to expect that the nation’s presidential campaigns will be characterized by a carnival atmosphere emphasizing style over substance. But this fascinating account of the pivotal 1840 election reveals how the now-unavoidable traditions of big money, big rallies, shameless self-promotion, and carefully manufactured candidate images first took root in presidential politics.Pulitzer Prize–nominated former Wall Street Journal reporter Ronald G. Shafer tells the colorful story of the election battle between sitting president Martin Van Buren, a professional Democratic politician from New York, and Whig Party upstart William Henry Harrison, a military hero who was nicknamed “Old Tippecanoe” after a battlefield where he fought and won in 1811. Shafer shows how the pivotal campaign of “Tippecanoe and Tyler Too” marked a series of firsts that changed presidential politicking forever: the first presidential campaign as mass entertainment, directed at middle- and lower-income voters; the first “image campaign,” in which strategists painted Harrison as an everyman living in a log cabin sipping hard cider (in fact, he was born into wealth, lived in a twenty-two-room mansion, and drank only sweet cider); the first campaign in which a candidate, Harrison, traveled and delivered speeches directly to voters; the first one influenced by major campaign donations; the first in which women openly participated; and the first involving massive grassroots rallies, attended by tens of thousands and marked by elaborate fanfare, including bands, floats, a log cabin on wheels, and the world’s tallest man.Some of history’s most fascinating figures—including Susan B. Anthony, Charles Dickens, Abraham Lincoln, Edgar Allan Poe, Thaddeus Stevens, and Walt Whitman—pass through this colorful story, which is essential reading for anyone interested in learning when image first came to trump ideas in presidential politics.

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Do you ever dream of being a marine explorer or adventurer? Are you a fan of cool, cute, or creepy creatures? Then here’s some good news: some of the coolest, cutest, and creepiest creatures live in Earth’s oceans and other watery places.Marine Science for Kids is a colorful, fun, photo-filled guide to exploring our underwater world. In these pages, you’ll delve deep into the science of aquatic study, including geology, chemistry, and biology in both salt- and freshwater environments, and gain insight into the real-world practice of aquatic science. You’ll discover how and why oceans move, and learn the answers to questions such as “Why is the ocean blue?” You’ll meet cool creatures, including sharks and rays, penguins and other seabirds, whales and dolphins, squids and octopuses, and many more. You’ll uncover some of the most pressing challenges facing marine environments and find out how you can use your talents to make a difference. Real-life marine scientists share what inspires them every day and provide insights into their exciting careers. Hands-on activities in each chapter make learning fun.Kids can: make an edible coral reef; explore marine camouflage; construct a water-propelled squid; test methods of cleaning up an oil spill; experiment with ocean acidification; and much more.

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Almost before the gunsmoke from the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre cleared, Chicago police had a suspect: Jack McGurn. They just couldn’t find him. McGurn, whose real name was Vincent Gebardi, was Al Capone’s chief assassin, a baby-faced Sicilian immigrant and professional killer of professional killers. But two weeks after the murders, police found McGurn and his paramour, Louise May Rolfe, holed up downtown at the Stevens Hotel. Both claimed they were in bed on the morning of the famous shootings, a titillating alibi that grabbed the public’s attention and never let go.Deadly Valentines tells one of the most outrageous stories of the 1920s, a twin biography of a couple who defined the extremes and excesses of the Prohibition era in America. McGurn was a prizefighter and the ultimate urban predator and hit man who put the iron in Al Capone’s muscle. Rolfe, a beautiful blonde dancer and libertine, was the epitome of fashion, rebellion, and wild abandon in the new jazz subculture. They were the prototypes for decades of gangster literature and cinema, representing a time that has never lost its allure.

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One Man's War is a gripping novel that follows the journey of one man, Bob Kafak, through World War II. It takes you where he fought, what he saw, what he did, and how he felt. The story focuses on this single man and his experiences as a rifleman in a frontline company during the war and it makes visceral the fear, the filth, and the cold that was his constant companion. Kafak is a reluctant hero who intentionally pisses off the brass every time he does something heroic and gets promoted because he has seen too many of his commanding officers get blown to pieces and he doesn't want to be the next. He fights from the beaches of Anzio, battles up through Southern France toward Germany, facing one terrible heart pounding encounter after another. The story is intensely focused on Kafak and the six feet of ground for which he battles, purposely leaving the wider implications of the war unspoken since that was the condition in which most soldiers on the front lines fought.

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In the first half of the twentieth century, Dunbar was an academically elite public school, despite being racially segregated by law and existing at the mercy of racist congressmen who held the school’s purse strings. These enormous challenges did not stop the local community from rallying for the cause of educating its children. Dunbar attracted an amazing faculty: one early principal was the first black graduate of Harvard, almost all the teachers had graduate degrees, and several earned PhDs—all extraordinary achievements given the Jim Crow laws of the times. Over the school’s first eighty years, these teachers developed generations of highly educated, high-achieving African Americans, groundbreakers that included the first black member of a presidential cabinet, the first black graduate of the US Naval Academy, the first black army general, the creator of the modern blood bank, the first black attorney general, the legal mastermind behind school desegregation, and hundreds of educators. By the 1950s, Dunbar High School was sending 80 percent of its students to college. Today, as with many troubled urban public schools, there are Dunbar students who struggle with basic reading and math. Journalist and author Alison Stewart, whose parents were both Dunbar graduates, tells the story of the school’s rise, fall, and path toward resurgence as it looks to reopen its new, state-of-the-art campus.

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There’s no need for expensive, high-tech lab equipment to conduct chemistry experiments—you probably have all you need in your home junk drawer. Turn an old LED flashlight into an Energy Drink Tester using aluminum foil and electrical tape. Mix cornstarch and water to make Non-Newtonian Goo. Use a 9-volt battery and thumbtacks to break water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen. Create edible Sweet Crystals from a saturated sugar solution. Or construct your own Three-Penny Battery from galvanized washers, pennies, vinegar, and scrap cardboard. Here are more than 50 great hands-on experiments that can be performed for just pennies . . . or less. Each project has a materials list, detailed step-by-step instructions with illustrations, and a brief explanation of the scientific principle being demonstrated—atoms, compounds, solutions, mixtures, reactions, thermodynamics, acids and bases, and more.

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With a polished walking stick and neatly pressed trousers, Richard Halliburton served as an intrepid globetrotting guide for millions of Americans in the 1920s and ’30s. Readers waited with bated breath for each new article and book he wrote. During his career, Halliburton climbed the Matterhorn, nearly fell out of his plane while shooting the first aerial photographs of Mount Everest, and became the first person to swim the full length of the Panama Canal.With his matinee idol looks, the Tennessee native was a media darling in an era of optimism and increased social openness. But as the Great Depression and looming war pushed America toward social conservatism, Halliburton more actively worked to hide his homosexuality, burnishing his image as a masculine trailblazer. No middle ground existed regarding Halliburton—he was either adored or abhorred. Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald called the Princeton graduate a poseur, a symbol of nouveau riche depravity. But most found his daredevil persona irresistible.As chronicled in American Daredevil, Halliburton harnessed the media of his day to gain and maintain a widespread following long before our age of the twenty-four-hour news cycle, and thus became the first adventure journalist. And during the darkest hours of the Great Depression, Halliburton did something remarkable: he inspired generations of authors, journalists, and everyday people who dreamed of fame and glory to explore the world.

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Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. loved the fried catfish and lemon icebox pie at Memphis’s Four Way restaurant. Beloved nonagenarian chef Leah Chase introduced George W. Bush to baked cheese grits and scolded Barack Obama for putting Tabasco sauce on her gumbo at New Orleans’s Dooky Chase’s. When SNCC leader Stokely Carmichael asked Ben’s Chili Bowl owners Ben and Virginia Ali to keep the restaurant open during the 1968 Washington, DC, riots, they obliged, feeding police, firefighters, and student activists as they worked together to quell the violence. Celebrated former Chicago Sun-Times columnist Dave Hoekstra unearths these stories and hundreds more as he travels, tastes, and talks his way through twenty of America’s best, liveliest, and most historically significant soul food restau­rants. Following the “soul food corridor” from the South through northern industrial cities, The People’s Place gives voice to the remarkable chefs, workers, and small business owners (often women) who provided sustenance and a safe haven for civil rights pioneers, not to mention presidents and politicians; music, film, and sports legends; and countless everyday, working-class people. Featuring lush photos, mouth-watering recipes, and ruminations from notable regulars such as the Rev. Jesse Jackson, jazz legend Ramsey Lewis, Little Rock Nine member Minnijean Brown, and many others, The People’s Place is an unprecedented celebration of soul food, community, and oral history.

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Americans have long heard the story of Teddy Roosevelt and the Rough Riders charging up San Juan Hill during the Spanish-American War. But often forgotten in the great swamp of history is that Roosevelt’s success was ensured by a dedicated corps of black soldiers—the so-called Buffalo Soldiers—who fought by Roosevelt’s side during his legendary campaign. Roosevelt admitted that the black troops actually spearheaded the charge, beating him to the top of Kettle Hill ahead of San Juan Hill, but later changed his story, claiming their perfor­mance was due to the superior white officers under whom the black troops served. The Roughest Riders takes a closer look at common historical legend and balances the record. It is the inspiring story of the first African American soldiers to serve during the post-slavery era, first in the West and later in Cuba, when full equality, legally at least, was still a distant dream. They fought heroically and courageously, making Roosevelt’s campaign a great success that added to the future president’s legend as a great man of words and action. But most of all, they demonstrated their own military prowess, often in the face of incredible discrimination from their fellow soldiers and commanders, and rightfully deserve their own place in American history.

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Chronicling the rich and fascinating history of Washington, DC, this useful resource for teachers and parents, reveals to young readers the city’s remarkable past through 21 hands-on activities. Children will gather items for a building cornerstone’s time capsule, design a memorial for a favorite president, take a walking tour of the National Mall, and much more. The book also includes a time line and list of books, websites, and places to visit.

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Historians and biographers have traditionally favored stories of the powerful and the trends they set in motion. More recently, they’ve spotlighted the neglected lives of the disenfranchised and dispossessed. “But,” asks Linda H. Matthews, descendant of the pragmatic, adaptable, and lively Hammill family, “who tells the stories of the people in the middle?” Spanning three centuries and three seas, from the bluffs of Scotland and Ireland to colonial Chesapeake Bay and Virginia, then across the expanding nation into the Pacific Northwest, Middling Folk makes the compelling case that the experiences of the middle classes--those who “quietly, century after century, conducted the business and built the livelihoods that made their societies prosper”--reveal a great deal about the founding of the United States and the ways in which customs and traditions are perpetuated through the generations. Matthews combines meticulous research and deft storytelling to show how the Scots-Irish Hammills--millers, wagon makers, and blacksmiths--lived out their lives against a backdrop of the American Revolution, the Civil War, and westward expansion. Readers will come away with a newfound respect for the ordinary families who helped shape this country and managed to hold their own through turbulent times.

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Women once saw living single as a transitional period--singles marked time till they found “the one.” But now marriage is the transitional stage, connecting one unmarried period of life to another. In I Didn’t Work This Hard Just to Get Married, through lively and revealing interviews with women from various walks of life, Nika C. Beamon explores the challenges facing single black women who defy expectations. They candidly discuss aging without a man and reevaluate dating, single homeownership, career, children, and caring for aged parents. The book speaks directly to the black woman’s experience, addressing challenges such as income discrepancies between genders, the high rate of male incarceration, and the Baby Mama Syndrome. Written in the best tradition of women talking to women, and girlfriend to girlfriend, the book delivers tales of lessons learned, hard times and good times, told by women who found ways to achieve their dreams by defying convention.

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History books are replete with heroic stories of Washington, Jefferson, and Adams, but what of Allen, Russwurm, and Hawley? America’s Black Founders celebrates the lesser known but significant lives and contributions of our nation’s early African American leaders. Many know that the Revolutionary War’s first martyr, Crispus Attucks, a dockworker of African descent, was killed at the Boston Massacre. But far fewer know that the final conflict of the war, the Battle of Yorktown, was hastened to a conclusion by James Armistead Lafayette, a slave and spy who reported the battle plans of General Cornwallis to George Washington. Author Nancy Sanders weaves the histories of dozens of men and women—soldiers, sailors, ministers, poets, merchants, doctors, and other community leaders—who have earned proper recognition among the founders of the United States of America. To get a better sense of what these individuals accomplished and the times in which they lived, readers will celebrate Constitution Day, cook colonial foods, publish a newspaper, petition their government, and more. This valuable resource also includes a time line of significant events, a list of historic sites to visit or explore online, and Web resources for further study.

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This gripping bestseller, first published in 1966, has continued to captivate readers with its wide-ranging yet intimate portrait of an America sundered by racial conflict. David Champlin is a black man born into poverty in Depression-era New Orleans who makes his way up the ladder of success, only to sacrifice everything to lead his people in the civil rights movement. Sara Kent is the white girl who loves David from the moment she first sees him, and who struggles against his belief that a marriage for them would be wrong in the violent world he has to confront. And the “five smooth stones” are those the biblical David carried against Goliath. By the time this novel comes to its climax of horror, bloodshed, and hope, readers will be convinced that its enduring popularity is fully justified.

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“On October 10, 1970, the day she was born, she was named Dorothy Maree Alaniz--a baby girl. Curiously, though, no one filled out a birth certificate that day. When the certificate was finally filed on November 5, the name on it was Rudolph Andrew Alaniz. Within less than one month after her birth, this girl became a boy.” Every year in the United States, more than two thousand children are born with an intersex condition or disorder of sex development. What makes someone a boy or a girl? Is it external genitalia, chromosomes, DNA, environment, or some combination of these factors? Not even doctors or scientists are entirely clear. What is clear is that sex is not an either-or proposition: not girl/boy, XX/XY, switching between two poles like an on-off switch on a radio. Rather, sex is like the bass and treble knobs on that radio. Between XX and XY provides a fascinating look at the science of sex and what makes people male or female. There are people born XXY, XXXY, or XXXXY, or with any number of variations in X or Y chromosomes, but those who do not fit into society’s preconceived notions about sex often face a difficult path in life. Dr. Callahan explores why humans are so attached to the idea of two sexes, and examines our obsession with sex and sexual intercourse through the ages.

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Skip James (1902–1969) was perhaps the most creative and idiosyncratic of all blues musicians. Drawing on hundreds of hours of conversations with James himself, Stephen Calt here paints a dark and unforgettable portrait of a man untroubled by his own murderous inclinations, a man who achieved one moment of transcendent greatness in a life haunted by failure. And in doing so, Calt offers new insights into the nature of the blues, the world in which it thrived, and its fate when that world vanished.

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Duke Ellington, one of the most influential figures in American music, comes alive in this comprehensive biography with engaging activities. Ellington was an accomplished and influential jazz pianist, composer, band leader, and cultural diplomat. Activities include creating a ragtime rhythm, making a washtub bass, writing song lyrics, thinking like an arranger, and learning to dance the Lindy Hop. It explores Ellington’s life and career along with many topics related to African American history, including the Harlem Renaissance. Kids will learn about the musical evolution of jazz that coincided with Ellington’s long life from ragtime through the big band era on up to the 1970s. Kids learn how music technology has changed over the years from piano rolls to record albums through CDs, television, and portable music devices. The extensive resources include a time line, glossary, list of Ellington’s greatest recordings, related books, Web sites, and DVDs for further study.

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Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s enduring legacy upon the history, culture, politics, and economics of the United States is introduced to children in this engaging activity book. Kids will learn how FDR, a member of one of the founding families of the New World, led the nation through the darkest days of the Great Depression and World War II as 32nd U.S. President. This book examines the Roosevelt family—including famous cousin Teddy Roosevelt and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt—as well as FDR’s early political career and subsequent 12 years in office during some of the most fascinating and turbulent times in American history. Interspersed throughout are first-hand accounts from the people who knew FDR and remember him well. Children will also learn how his personal struggles with polio and his physical disability strengthened FDR's compassion and resolve. In addition, kids will explore Roosevelt's entire era through such hands-on activities as staging a fireside chat, designing a WPA-style mural, sending a double encoded message, hosting a swing dance party, and participating in a political debate.

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This amusing travel guide to the Lone Star State doesn't waste travelers' time telling them where to find antiques in the Hill Country, take breathtaking hikes through Big Bend, or gaze upon the Alamo. Instead, it guides television fans to a modern replica of the Munsters's mansion, leads the nonsqueamish to the world's only Cockroach Hall of Fame, and points the curious towards a small town filled with hippo statues. Among other things, Texas is home to Goliath-sized roadside attractions, and directions are provided on how to reach the World's Largest Six-Shooter, World's Largest Rattlesnake, and World's Largest Wooden Nickel. The accompanying photographs and maps instruct visitors on how to get to these and other extraordinary spots, including the Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, the Celebrity Shoe Musuem, Alley Oop's Fantasyland, and the Birthplace of Fritos. A dose of wacky Texas history is also included with answers to questions such as Did a UFO really crash into a windmill northwest of Fort Worth in 1897? and What does an Abilene Kinko's have to do with the early retirement of Dan Rather?

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This riveting inside story of the intense search for the Salt Lake City teenager who was kidnapped from her bed reveals never-before-told details of the largest investigation in Utah state history. Paced like a thriller, this true account moves between the parallel stories of the searchers and the abductor. The firsthand account of Tom Smart, Elizabeth's uncle and one-time suspect, reveals the details of the flawed police investigation, the media's manipulation of the family, and the eyewitness account of nine-year-old Mary Katherine Smart that went largely ignored by investigators. New research is presented on the family background of disturbed street preacher Brian David Mitchell, who kidnapped Elizabeth as part of a bizarre polygamous plot. Also examined is the critical role of the media, revealing the essential part played by John Walsh and others in facilitating Elizabeth's safe return, and the manipulative influence of Fox News and Bill O'Reilly. Going beyond a mere eyewitness account, the book includes information culled from interviews with more than 150 people involved in the search and investigation, notes from family meetings, and memos from law enforcement officials. Tom Smart is donating half of his royalties to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, the Rape Crisis Center, and other charities.

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Exhaustively researched and packed with unique insights, this history journeys from the punk scene's roots in the mid-1960s to the arrival of 'new wave' in the early 1980s. With a cast that includes Patti Smith, Pere Ubu, Television, Blondie, the Ramones, the MC5, the Stooges, Talking Heads, and the Dead Boys, this account is the definitive story of early American punk rock. Extraordinarily balanced, it tells the story of the music's development largely through the artists' own words, while thoroughly analyzing and evaluating the music in a lucid and cogent manner. First published in 1993, this was the first book to tell the stories of these then-little-known bands; now, this edition has been updated with a new discography, including imports and bootlegs, and an afterword detailing the post-1970s history of these bands. Filled with insights from interviews with artists such as Lou Reed, Debbie Harry, David Byrne, Patti Smith, and Richard Hell, this book has long been considered one of

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Written for both new and experienced writers, this comprehensive marketing guide offers advice and tips needed by writers to succeed in the film and television industries. Focusing on the business of writing, it gives writers the unabashed truth about the film industry, and advice on how to get scripts to the gatekeepers of the studios and read by agents. Comprehensive listings of contests, fellowships, grants, and development opportunities from an industry expert provide specific information on securing a healthy writing career. This extensive resource also includes guidelines regarding copyrights, sources for emergency funds, a listing of online resources, information on writers' colonies and retreats, and more.

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Nineteenth-century America and the world of Samuel L. Clemens, better known as Mark Twain, come to life as children journey back in time with this history- and literature-laden activity book. The comprehensive biographical information explores Mark Twain as a multi-talented man of his times, from his childhood in the rough-and-tumble West of Missouri to his many careers—steamboat pilot, printer, miner, inventor, world traveler, businessman, lecturer, newspaper reporter, and most important, author—and how these experiences influenced his writing. Twain-inspired activities include making printer’s type, building a model paddlewheel boat, unmasking a hoax, inventing new words, cooking cornpone, planning a newspaper, observing people, and writing maxims. An extensive resource section offers information on Twain’s classics, such as Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, as well as a listing of recommended web sites to explore.

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This riveting sequel to My Bloody Life traces Reymundo Sanchez’s struggle to create a “normal” life outside the Latin Kings, one of the nation's most notorious street gangs, and to move beyond his past. Sanchez illustrates how the Latin King motto “once a king, always a king” rings true and details the difficulty and danger of leaving that life behind. Filled with heartpounding scenes of his backslide into drugs, sex, and violence, Once a King, Always a King recounts how Sanchez wound up in prison and provides an engrossing firsthand account of how the Latin Kings are run from inside the prison system. Harrowing testaments to Sanchez’s determination to rebuild his life include his efforts to separate his family from gang life and his struggle to adapt to marriage and the corporate world. Despite temptations, nightmares, regressions into violence, and his own internal demons, Sanchez makes an uneasy peace with his new life. This raw, powerful, and brutally honest memoir traces the transformation of an accomplished gangbanger into a responsible citizen.

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Covering 600 music festivals worldwide, this guide offers lively descriptions of festivals of all manner, size, and form. A resource for the committed festival attendee, it offers dates, locations, scheduled events, web sites, and lists of recent performers. Accommodation information is also featured alongside price guidelines and camping details. Also a vital handbook for the performer, it provides contact information for booking agents, deadlines for submissions, and, in some cases, practical tips about how to get on the bill. Covering nearly every conceivable genre of music—from alternative rock, world music, avant-garde jazz, and R&B to bluegrass, reggae, medieval, and contemporary classical—this companion is comprehensive, engagingly written, and amazingly informative. The Music Festival Guide is an essential resource for anyone interested in attending or performing at music festivals.

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Land of the world’s largest prairie chicken, birthplace of Spam, and home of the world’s oldest rock, this is Minnesota, where summers are short, winters are long, and back-road wonders abound. This entertaining guide wastes no time with descriptions of scenic lakes, pristine bike trails, or quaint cafés. Instead it directs travelers (and residents) to the spot where Tiny Tim strummed his last notes on the ukulele; to the Cold Spring chapel where two grasshoppers bow down to the Virgin Mary; and to the McLeod County Museum, where the mummy on display could be from Peru or outer space. While ordinary tourists are fighting off mosquitoes in the Boundary Waters, oddball travelers can size up the world’s largest ear of corn and admire the fourth Zamboni ever built. And one last thing: there aren’t 10,000 lakes in Minnesota; there are 14,215. For travelers who are in search of the unusual, there is no better reason to park the bike and hiking boots in the garage, fill up the gas tank, and hit the road to Minnesota, where weirdness awaits.

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Ages 6 to 9 years. North America boasts a surprising number of rainforests, including El Yunque National Forest in Puerto Rico, Olympic National Forest in Washington State, Chugah and Tongass National Forests in Alaska, and the forests in Hawaii, which are home to an enormous variety of plants and animals. Rainforests: An Activity Guide takes kids through the common layers of the rainforest, from the forest floor to above the enclosed canopy. Their journey continues through the different types of rainforests as they are introduced to plants, animals, and people around the world, including those from the temperate rainforests of North America to the tropical rainforests of Southeast Asia, Africa, and South America. Rainforest-inspired activities include making a West African yam festival gourd rattle, building a model of an Alaskan totem pole, and creating a Javanese Wayang-kuilt, or shadow puppet. Kids are encouraged to make a difference and become active supporters of the rainforests no matter where they live.

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Earth science comes alive for children 6 to 9 through 60 engrossing games, activities, and experiments. Kids “core sample” a filled cupcake and discover plate tectonics by floating graham cracker continents on a molten mantle of molasses. They learn how heat changes rocks by seeing how separate ingredients disappear when they bake Rice Krispie Treats. More activities show what causes earthquakes and what kinds of buildings resist their force. Growing sugar and salt crystals, “fossilizing” plastic insects, and modeling a variety of volcanoes add to the learning and the fun. Eight of the activities are tasty as well as informative. Silly songs help children remember new words and concepts, and a resource section gives inexpensive sources for rocks, minerals, and fossils. All the projects have been tested in homes and schools to make sure they are safe, effective, and fun.

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This vivid oral snapshot of an America that planted the blues is full of rhythmic grace. From the son of a sharecropper to an itinerant bluesman, Honeyboy’s stories of good friends Charlie Patton, Big Walter Horton, Little Walter Jacobs, and Robert Johnson are a godsend to blues fans. History buffs will marvel at his unique perspective and firsthand accounts of the 1927 Mississippi River flood, vagrancy laws, makeshift courts in the back of seed stores, plantation life, and the Depression.

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Few artists are as intriguing as Joni Mitchell. She was a solidly middle-class, buttoned-up bohemian; an anti-feminist who loved men but scorned free love; a female warrior taking on the male music establishment. She was both the party girl with torn stockings and the sensitive poet. She often said she would be criticized for staying the same or changing, so why not take the less boring option? Her earthy, poetic lyrics (“the geese in chevron flight” in “Urge for Going”), the phrases that are now part of the culture (“They paved paradise, put up a parking lot”), and the unusual melodic intervals traced by that lissome voice earned her the status of a pop legend. Fearless experimentation ensured that she will also be seen as one of the most important musicians of the twentieth century.Joni on Joni is an authoritative, chronologically arranged anthology of some of Mitchell’s most illuminating interviews, spanning the years 1966 to 2014. It includes revealing pieces from her early years in Canada and Detroit along with influential articles such as Cameron Crowe’s never-before-anthologized Rolling Stone piece. Interspersed throughout the book are key quotes from dozens of additional Q&As. Together, this material paints a revealing picture of the artist— bragging and scornful, philosophical and deep, but also a beguiling flirt.

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