Nonfiction Biography

Between 1930 and 1932, Henry Ford sent 450 of his Detroit employees plus their families to live in Gorky, Russia, to operate a new manufacturing facility. This is the true story of one of those families—Carl and Elisabeth Werner and their young daughter Margaret—and their terrifying life in Russia under brutal dictator Joseph Stalin.

Who was Terry Fox? Why do Canadians name schools, roads, buildings, and parks after him? Know Terry Fox’s story through this educational book for kids. Be inspired by his determination, hardwork, and a spirit too strong for cancer to beat.

Team USA goalkeeper Tim Howard was diagnosed with Tourette Syndrome in sixth grade. He went on to become a national treasure after single-handedly keeping America competitive in the 2014 World Cup. Stephen Curry was told he was too small, too weak, and too slow to even receive a scholarship to play college basketball. He outworked everyone and went on to become MVP of the National Basketball Association. Jim Abbott was born without his right hand, yet he refused to be defined by what he lacked. He went on to pitch a no-hitter in the Major Leagues.

From the New York Times best-selling author of Little Leaders: Bold Women in Black History comes the highly anticipated follow-up, a beautifully illustrated collectible detailing the lives of women creators around the world.

In Just Ask, United States Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor celebrates the different abilities kids (and people of all ages) have. Using her own experience as a child who was diagnosed with diabetes, Justice Sotomayor writes about children with all sorts of challenges - and looks at the special powers those kids have as well. As the kids work together to build a community garden, asking questions of each other along the way, this book encourages listeners to do the same.

What if a zombie apocalypse or a robot uprising threatened the nation, and you had the power to recruit some of the nation's finest presidents to help save the day? By studying the most successful squads in history, Daniel O'Brien has identified the perfect ingredients for a victorious team. Which president would you choose for: the Brain, the Brawn, the Moral Compass, the Loose Cannon, and the Roosevelt?

Two dozen Navy SEALs descended on Osama bin Laden’s compound in May 2011. After the mission, only one name was made public: Cairo, a Belgian Malinois and military working dog. Warrior Dog the story of Cairo and his handler, Will Chesney, a member of SEAL Team Six whose life would be irrevocably tied to Cairo's, specially adapted for young listeners from Chesney and Joe Layden's No Ordinary Dog.

Born in Ontario, Canada, in 1940, Alex Trebek grew up listening to the radio and hoping to one day become a broadcaster. His dream became a reality when he was hired as a reporter for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in 1961. Alex's composed nature and ability to skillfully improvise while on television eventually led to his role as the host of Jeopardy!, the biggest quiz game show in the United States.

The Bismark was the greatest warship ever built, with guns so powerful and accurate it could destroy an enemy ship while safely staying outside the line of fire. But the Allies had to sink it...or risk losing the war. William Shirer, famed World War II correspondent and author of The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, captures every suspenseful moment of the perilous mission.

Mr. Churchill in the White House presents a new perspective on the politician, war leader, and author through his intimate involvement with one Democratic and one Republican president during his two terms as prime minister.

In Writings to Young Women from Laura Ingalls Wilder: On Life as a Pioneer Woman, Laura tells her listeners what it was like to be a pioneer in the early 1900s. Her stories and insights show us how difficult even the simplest chores or tasks were for the early pioneers, yet through it all she continued to see each situation as an adventure—as if she was truly blazing the trail for future generations.

The stories in I Thought He Would Be in Jail are the true-life adventures of a mischievous hyperactive boy who became a prank-playing jet-age pilot instead. Growing up in the 1940s and '50s, Steve Taylor created trouble everywhere he went. He skipped school for weeks at a time but never took a day off from walking on the edge. Some tales tug at your heart, some make you laugh, and some will show the upside of benign neglect.

Hispanic America, Texas, and the Mexican War examines the history of the southwestern area of the United States. Topics covered include the settlement of the area that became the southwestern portion of the United States, detailing how it evolved from land settled by Native Americans, to Spanish territory, to states that were pawns between the North and South prior to the Civil War.

Each entry in this series is a biography of a significant historical figure, told in a simple, conversational, vivacious way, and always focusing on a character trait that makes the person a role model for kids. The heroes tell their life stories in first-person present tense, which keeps the books playful and accessible to young children. This 10th audiobook in the series features Jane Goodall, the scientist and conservationist who is famous for her work with chimpanzees.

A Chinese proverb says, "Falling leaves return to their roots." In Chinese Cinderella, Adeline Yen Mah returns to her roots to tell the story of her painful childhood and her ultimate triumph and courage in the face of despair. Adeline's affluent, powerful family considers her bad luck after her mother dies giving birth to her. Life does not get any easier when her father remarries. She and her siblings are subjected to the disdain of her stepmother, while her stepbrother and stepsister are spoiled.

In this revealing insight into a little-known aspect of British wartime history, Helen Fry documents the stories of those who fought for king and adopted country. Based on interviews with veterans and drawing on a rich vein of source material, the author sets their personal stories against the bigger picture of the experience of enemy aliens in Britain during the Second World War.

The New York Times best-selling author of How to Read Literature Like a Professor uses the same skills to teach how to access accurate information in a rapidly changing 24/7 news cycle and become better readers, thinkers, and consumers of media.

On the eve of a major treaty conference between Iroquois leaders and European colonists in the distant summer of 1722, two White fur traders attacked an Indigenous hunter and left him for dead near Conestoga, Pennsylvania. This act of brutality set into motion a remarkable series of criminal investigations and cross-cultural negotiations that challenged the definition of justice in early America. Leading historian Nicole Eustace reconstructs the crime and its aftermath, bringing us into the overlapping worlds of white colonists and Indigenous peoples in this formative period.

For Sig Hansen and his brothers, commercial fishing is as much a part of their Norwegian heritage as their names. Descendents of the Vikings who roamed and ruled the northern seas for centuries, the Hansens' connection to the sea stretches from Alaska to Seattle and all the way to Norway. And after 20 years as a skipper on the commercial fishing vessel the Northwestern - which was his father's before him - Sig has lived to tell the tales.

Unmasking the Klansman may read like a work of fiction but is actually a biography of Asa Carter, one of the South's most notorious white supremacists (and secret Klansman). In the early 1960s Carter became a secret adviser to George Wallace and wrote the Alabama governor's infamous 1963 inauguration speech vowing "segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever."