History For Kids

By the time the United States joined the Second World War in 1941, the fight against Nazi and Axis powers had already been underway for two years. In order to win the war and protect its soldiers, the US Marines recruited 29 Navajo men to create a secret code that could be used to send military messages quickly and safely across battlefields. In this new book within the number one New York Times best-selling series, author James Buckley Jr. explains how these brave and intelligent men developed their amazing code.

What if, instead of trying to predict the future, we could just pick the one we want - and then invent it? Well, we can. Think of the wealth of technological resources already available to us. The computing power in that smartphone in your pocket could have guided 120 million Apollo-era spacecraft to the Moon and back. A gigabyte of memory cost $300,000 in the 1980s - today, it costs a fraction of a penny. Now, try to imagine 2050, when your computing devices will be a million times more powerful or available at one-millionth of today's prices.

Arlene Alda's own Bronx memories were a jumping-off point from which to reminisce with a nun, a police officer, an urban planner, and with Carl Reiner, Colin Powell, Maira Kalman, and many other leading artists, athletes, scientists and entrepreneurs - experiences spanning six decades. Alda then arranged these pieces of the past, the mornings on the Grand Concourse and afternoons in the halls of Bronx Science, into one great collective story, a film-like portrait of the Bronx - and of America.

Never before had both the Yankees and the Mets been in contention for the playoffs so late in the same season. For months New York fans dreamed of the first Subway Series in nearly 30 years, and the Mets and the Yankees vied for their hearts. While the drama inside the Mets' clubhouse only made the team more endearing to fans, the drama inside the Yankees' clubhouse had the opposite effect. The result was the most attention-grabbing and exciting season New York would see in generations.

The amazing story behind the greatest newspaper men to ever live, Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst, lies primarily hidden with their reporters who were in the field. They risked their lives in Cuba as the country grappled for independence simply to “get the story” and write what was not always the most accurate story, but definitely the best. Anything to sell papers. Reporters like Harry Scovel, Stephen Crane, Cora Taylor, Richard Harding Davis, and James Creelman, among others, put themselves in danger every day just for the news.

Niya Moto is the only one-legged samurai kid in Japan, famous for falling flat on his face in the dirt. None of the samurai schools will teach crippled Niya, until an offer arrives from the legendary samurai warrior Ki-Yaga, sensei of the Cockroach Ryu. Niya and the other Cockroaches must defeat the fierce samurai students from the Dragon Ryu at the Samurai Trainee Games. Though they seem to be at a terrible disadvantage, it’s not long before they learn that if they stick together, there is no journey that they cannot complete, no fear that they cannot face....

The summer of 1964 had been "Freedom Summer" for a few campuses. The Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) had drawn some 500 students, most of them White, from Ivy League and prestigious universities to help its integration efforts in Mississippi. An up-and-coming leader named Stokely Carmichael had told a group of prospective volunteers in New York that SNCC wanted to be sure that if Blacks were killed for the civil rights cause, Whites would die with them.

Across the valley, a drumbeat echoes. For ten days, the drum will call the mountain ryus to war, including the samurai kids from the Cockroach Ryu. Only Japan’s feudal emperor can stop the war, so Niya and Sensei Ki-Yaga set off on a grueling journey with all the Cockroaches, whose firm friendship and unusual skills must be put to the test in order to beg the Emperor to maintain peace. Sensei Ki-Yaga is respected and wise, but unfortunately, the last time he encountered the Emperor, the Emperor threatened to cut off his head.

G. Gordon Liddy's wit, wisdom, and no-holds-barred approach brought legions of devoted listeners to his daily radio program, and made his autobiography, Will, a monumental best seller. Now he brings the same inimitable style to When I Was a Kid, This Was a Free Country. Listeners will be alternately infuriated and amused - but always enthralled - as "The G-Man" reveals what has been wrought by liberal politicians, government bureaucrats, "enviro-radicals", "fulminating feminists", and many others.

Inspiring, relatable, and totally true biographies tell the childhood stories of a diverse group of trailblazers including Kamala Harris, Greta Thunberg, Ai Weiwei, Benazir Bhutto, Elliot Page, and John Lewis, along with ten other powerful figures. Kid Trailblazers highlights contemporary figures who have led the way in government, social activism, environmental justice, and the arts.

In 1692, a few paranoid Puritans accused their neighbors of being witches sending the town flying off the (broomstick) handle. Before it was all over, dozens of women in Salem, Massachusetts were executed—burned at the stake. RIGHT? WRONG! There was some serious witch worry, but no one in the United States was put on a pyre (though the truth isn't much better). And women weren’t the only ones caught in crossfire…maybe don’t tell your dog about this one.

Humans live longer now than they ever have in their more than three hundred thousand years of existence on earth. And most (if not all) of the advances that have permitted the human lifespan to double have happened in living memory. Extra Life looks at vaccines, seat belts, pesticides, and more, and how each of our scientific advancements have prolonged human life.

Kid Curry has been portrayed as a cold-blooded killer, without any compassion or conscience, and possessed of limited intelligence. Curry indeed was a dangerous man with a violent temperament, which was aggravated by alcoholic drink. Mark Smokov has researched extensively in areas significant to Curry's story and corrects the many false statements that have been written about him in the past. Curry was a cunning outlaw who planned and executed robberies.

A teenage boy goes shopping on the Internet, sees something he likes, immediately reaches his mother via cell phone, and in a few short keystrokes, types in her credit card number and gets a shiny new lacrosse stick. Thanks to technological advances, including computers, the Internet, cell phones, and satellites, today's children are faced with a world markedly more complex - and often more distracting - than that of any other preceding generation.

Every great artist started out as a kid. Forget the awards, the sold-out museum exhibitions, and the timeless masterpieces. When the world’s most celebrated artists were growing up, they had regular-kid problems just like you. Jackson Pollock’s family moved constantly - he lived in eight different cities before he was 16 years old. Georgia O’Keeffe lived in the shadow of her “perfect” older brother Francis. And Jean-Michel Basquiat triumphed over poverty to become one of the world’s most influential artists.

Every great author started out as a kid. Before the best sellers, fan clubs, and beloved stories we know today, the world's most celebrated writers had regular-kid problems just like you. Sam Clemens (aka Mark Twain) loved to skip school and make mischief, with his best friend Tom, of course! A young J. R. R. Tolkien was bitten by a huge tarantula - or as he called it, "a spider as big as a dragon." Toddler Zora Neale Hurston took her first steps when a wild hog entered her house and started chasing her!

Every president started out as a kid! Forget the legends, tall tales, and historic achievements - before they were presidents, the future leaders of the United States had regular-kid problems just like you. John F. Kennedy hated his big brother. Lyndon Johnson pulled pranks in class. Barack Obama was bothered by bullies. And Bill Clinton was crazy clumsy (he once broke his leg jumping rope). Kid Presidents tells all of their stories and more in these hilarious biographies. History has never been this much fun!

Who lived in Texas over a thousand years ago? In Porch Talk, John Erickson and his archaeologist friend Doug Boyd investigate this question while explaining the art and science of archaeology for middle listeners. On the Perryton ranch, John and his friends unearthed a ghost town that dated back to around 1300 CE. For more than twenty years, they worked together on this and other prehistoric sites, sharing a fascination for the ancient people who occupied the area. How did these people work, play, and survive?

From prehistoric times to the 1800s, the Plains or Great Plains were settled by people who migrated from Asia. Around 10,000 years ago, the earliest settlers of America were the Stone Flaked people (Lithic). They chipped rocks to make heads for their spears to hunt food or to make scrapers. The scrapers were for cutting wooden spear handles or for cleaning animal hides to make them soft for wearing. Do you think you could have survived as one of the Great Plains People?

In May 1962, Naval Chief Petty Officer Bryant Arbuckle flew to Saigon to establish a new armed forces radio station. Next to follow were his wife and three boys, Leslie among them. Saigon Kids is the candid, recondite slice of 14-year-old military brat Les Arbuckle's experience at the American Community School during the critical months of the Vietnam War when events would, quite literally, ignite in downtown Saigon.