Nonfiction Biography

Isamu Noguchi is one of the most important sculptors of all time. His Akari lamps changed the way modern buildings light their space. But before he was important, he was a kid. This is his story. Noguchi was a Japanese American artist who gave the world light. The world, however, was not always so giving in return. Growing up mixed-race, born in the United States but raised in Japan, Noguchi found himself perceived as an outsider who did not belong in either country

Emma Lilian Todd's mind was always soaring—she loved to solve problems. Lilian tinkered and fiddled with all sorts of objects, turning dreams into useful inventions. As a child, she took apart and reassembled clocks to figure out how they worked. As an adult, typing up patents at the U.S. Patent Office, Lilian built the inventions in her mind, including many designs for flying machines. However, they all seemed too impractical. Lilian knew she could design one that worked.

Opal Lee grew up as a Black girl in Texas at a time when Black and white people were kept separate and Black people had fewer opportunities than white people did. She knew that this wasn’t right, and she grew up to be a teacher and a community leader, determined to help create a better future for all people. A big part of her work and life was making Juneteenth a national holiday to mark the end of enslavement for Black Americans. She loved this day as both a celebration and as a way of teaching about the past.

Sonia Sotomayor es la primera jueza latina en la Corte Suprema en la historia de los Estados Unidos, pero su trayectoria no fue fácil. Ella tuvo que superar numerosos obstáculos y desafíos en el camino, como recibir un diagnóstico de diabetes a los siete años. Pero no dejó que eso le impidiera alcanzar su sueño e inspirar a los niños de todo el mundo a trabajar duro y tener fe en sí mismos.

Harriet Tubman, quien nació esclavizada, se convirtió en una de las conductoras más exitosas, más decidida y conocida del Ferrocarril Subterráneo. Con el amor de su familia firmemente plantado en su corazón, Harriet miró a la Estrella del Norte en busca de orientación para escapar, y su luz la ayudó a salir de la esclavitud. Su coraje le permitió ayudar a muchos otros a llegar también a tierra de libertad.

In 1818, Jeannette Power, a young French woman moved to Sicily and fell in love with the Mediterranean Sea and the Argonauta Argo octopus, the weirdest octopus on Earth. At the time, though, the only way to study a marine animal was if it was dead on land. That wasn’t good enough. Jeannette wanted to study this creature alive. She had many questions: did it create its own shell, how did it reproduce, what did it eat, and did it know she was watching? She knew that careful observation was the only way to answer her questions.

Best-selling author Claire A. Nivola has won multiple awards for her captivating books introducing historical figures to young audiences. In this critically acclaimed profile of noted oceanographer Sylvia Earle, listeners follow Sylvia as her childhood adventures in the Gulf of Mexico help inspire her life’s work: discovering the secrets of “the blue heart of the planet”.

The inspiring stories of six people who changed history. Contents: Gaius Julius Caesar, the powerful Roman leader; Queen Elizabeth I, who ruled England for 45 years; George Washington, the first president of the USA; King Louis XVI, the last king of France; Winston Churchill, who led Britain in the Second World War; Che Guevara, the Argentinian doctor who fought for revolution.

The inspiring stories of six people who changed history. Contents: Henry J Heinz, the man who invented tomato ketchup; William Lever, who made millions from soap; Michael Marks, founder of the Marks and Spencer stores; Henry Ford, who mass produced cars and made them affordable; Coco Chanel, the businesswoman who changed fashion for women; Ray Kroc, the man who created the McDonald's chain of restaurants.

The inspiring stories of six people who changed history. Contents: Antoine Lavoisier, who wrote the first modern chemistry textbook; Humphry Davy, who discovered 'laughing gas'; Charles Darwin, who changed people's ideas with his theory of evolution; Gregor Mendel, who first discovered the science of genetics; Louis Pasteur, who saved millions of lives by killing germs; Francis Crick, who helped to discover the structure of DNA.

The inspiring stories of six people who changed history, including Pablo Casals, the Catalan cello player; Louis Armstrong, the American trumpet player and singer; Frank Sinatra, the Italian American singer and actor; Édith Piaf, France's famous singing star; Maria Callas, the Greek opera singer; and Elvis Presley, the man who changed pop music.

The inspiring stories of six people who changed history, including Voltaire, the French writer who believed in equality for all; Charlotte Brontë, the British novelist who wrote Jane Eyre; Mark Twain, the American who wrote Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer; Jacques Prévert, the writer known in France as 'the People's Poet'; Ayn Rand, whose writing expressed her own philosophical ideas; and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, who wrote about life in a Soviet Labour Camp.

The inspiring stories of six people who changed history. Contents: Alfred Nobel, creator of the Nobel Prize; Andrew Carnegie, the businessman who built libraries for poor people; John D. Rockefeller who made money from oil and gave it all away; Thomas Barnardo who created homes for poor children; Henry Wellcome who used his money for medical research; Madam C. J. Walker who gave her money to the African-American community.

The inspiring stories of six people who changed history, including Geoffrey Chaucer, writer of the first great works of English literature; William Shakespeare, writer of the greatest plays in history; Charles Dickens, who wanted to make England a better place; Victor Hugo, the French writer who cared about the poor; Leo Tolstoy, the man who wrote War and Peace; and Rudyard Kipling, who wrote The Jungle Book and won a Nobel Prize.

The inspiring stories of six people who changed history, including Marco Polo, who taught the world about China; Ibn Battuta, who travelled to 44 countries; Christopher Columbus, who discovered new worlds; James Cook, the first man to sail around the world in both directions; David Livingstone, who explored Africa; and Yuri Gagarin, the first man to go into space.

The inspiring stories of five people who changed history, including Joseph-Michel Montgolfier, who helped humans to fly; Louis Blériot, the first person to cross the sea in an aeroplane; Charles Lindbergh, the first person to cross the Atlantic alone; Amelia Earhart, the first woman to fly alone across the Atlantic; and Amy Johnson, the British woman who broke flying records This book is level 2 in the Collins ELT Readers series.

The inspiring stories of six people who changed history, including Alessandro Volta, inventor of the battery; Michael Faraday, inventor of the electric motor; Marie Curie, famous for her work on radioactivity; Albert Einstein, creator of the theory of relativity; Alexander Fleming, discoverer of the first antibiotic; and Linus Pauling, chemist and peace activist.

The inspiring stories of six people who changed history, including Confucius, the great Chinese philosopher; Socrates, the great Greek philosopher; Aristotle, the first person to organise scientific knowledge; William Wilberforce, who ended the British slave trade; Karl Marx, who wrote The Communist Manifesto and Das Kapital; and Mahatma Gandhi, who helped free India from British rule.

On October 5, 2011, the news of the death of technology innovator Steve Jobs rocked the world. The failing health of the Apple cofounder and Pixar CEO was no secret. Jobs had given up his role as Apple's CEO just a few months prior because of his struggle with pancreatic cancer. But his death still drew a huge reaction. From Apple employees and fans to political and business leaders, people honored Jobs' passing by reflecting on his prolific life that greatly influenced the way technology is used.

Avast! Are ye' ready to sail the high seas with some of the world's most feared pirates? These accounts will do more than shiver your timbers. Come aboard to witness the ruthless methods of history's most petrifying pirates.