Young Adult Biography

You’ve heard of the space race, but do you know the whole story? The most ambitious race humankind has ever undertaken was masterminded in the shadows by two engineers on opposite sides of the Cold War - Wernher von Braun, a former Nazi officer living in the US, and Sergei Korolev, a Russian rocket designer once jailed for crimes against his country - and your textbooks probably never told you. From Amy Cherrix comes the extraordinary hidden story of the space race and the bitter rivalry that launched humankind to the moon.

Meet Barbara Reichmann, once known as Gucia Gomolinska: smart, determined, independent, and steadfast in the face of injustice. A Jew growing up in predominantly Catholic Poland during the 1920s and ’30s, Gucia studies hard, makes friends, falls in love, and dreams of a bright future. Her world is turned upside down when Nazis invade Poland and establish the first Jewish ghetto of World War II in her town of Piotrko´w Trybunalski.

Blaze Ginsberg offers a unique view into his mind and life as a high functioning autistic teenager. Inspired by the format of the Internet Movie Database, Ginsberg organizes the events in his life as a collection of "episodes." Some of these are ongoing (like Thanksgiving dinners with his family), some are in syndication, and some (his crush on Hillary Duff, for example) have sadly come to an end. Using a style and a language all his own, Blaze reinvents the traditional memoir for listeners of all ages.

Every schoolchild knows the story of how Pocahontas saved the life of Captain John Smith, but that's not the whole story. The Native American princess Pocahontas was born near the end of the sixteenth century as the daughter of Powhatan, chief of the Powhatan confederacy. It was Pocahontas, known as Matoaka by her clan, who interceded on behalf of John Smith in 1608 and then persuaded her father to bring food to the starving colonists at Jamestown.

In the 1960s, locked in a heated race to launch the first human into space, the United States selected seven superstar test pilots and former military air fighters to NASA's astronaut class - the Mercury 7. The men endured grueling training and constant media attention for the honor of becoming America's first space heroes. But a group of 13 women - accomplished air racers, test pilots, and flight instructors - were enduring those same astronaut tests in secret, hoping to defy social norms and earn a spot among the stars.

On March 1, 1893, Princess Ka’iulani, the 17-year-old crown princess of Hawaii, stepped onto the pier at New York City. She was greeted by a crowd of reporters and onlookers who knew that, in many ways, she stood at a crossroads in history. Fully aware of the significance of her visit, she prayed that she could help persuade the American government to return her beautiful islands to the Hawaiian people.

This Newbery Honor Book - from a three-time Newbery Honor author - paints an indelible portrait of the prairie president. Clara Ingram Judson presents Lincoln in all his gauntness, gawkiness, and greatness: a backwoods boy who became President and saved the Union. Judson's careful reading is enlivened by her visits to his home and vivid descriptions of the Lincoln family's pioneer life.

Paul Robeson’s bass-baritone voice captivated audiences, especially when singing the spirituals he had heard at church and folk songs he had gathered from many countries. But Robeson was more than an interpreter of song. He was passionate about the injustices found in the United States and throughout the world and refused to keep quiet. As a stage and film actor, he fought against stereotypical roles and racism. Labeled a communist during the height of the Cold War, Robeson was stripped of his U.S. passport and found himself unable to earn a living. But Robeson never gave up or gave in.

Born in 1857 and raised in oil country, Ida M. Tarbell was one of the first investigative journalists and probably the most influential in her time. Her series of articles on the Standard Oil Trust, a complicated business empire run by John D. Rockefeller, revealed to readers the underhanded, even illegal practices that had led to Rockefeller's success.

Balena è la storia di un corpo che cambia e diventa gigantesco, ma è anche la storia di una donna che si riappropria di sé grazie a quel corpo. Dopo la perdita del padre, a soli undici anni, Giulia inizia a cercare di colmare quel vuoto enorme col cibo, finendo per passare da 40 a 96 chili in pochi mesi. Poi, insieme al corpo, cominciano a crescere il rifiuto di sé e la vergogna, mentre compagni e insegnanti iniziano a trattarla in modo diverso. Un memoir toccante e acuto che racconta la stigmatizzazione del corpo, il superamento del lutto e la ricerca di un nuovo inizio.

In this heartwarming and candid memoir, Tim Howard does something he would never do on a soccer field: he drops his guard. As fiercely protective about his privacy as he is guarding the goal for the US national team and for Everton in the English Premier League, Howard opens up for the first time about how a hyperactive kid from New Jersey with Tourette's syndrome defied the odds to become one of the world’s premier goalkeepers.

How to Be Happy tackles depression, friendship, sexual identity, suicide, academic pressure, love, and adolescent confusion. It’s a brave and honest account of one young man’s search for a happy, true, and meaningful life that will resonate with listeners young and old.

An Iraqi woman who survived capture by ISIS. A Sudanese teen growing up in civil war and famine. An Afghan interpreter for the U.S. Army living under threat of a fatwa. They are among the five refugees who share their stories in award-winning author and photographer Susan Kuklin's latest masterfully crafted narrative. The five, originally from Afghanistan, Myanmar, South Sudan, Iraq, and Burundi, give gripping first-person testimonies about what it is like to flee war, face violent threats, grow up in a refugee camp, be sold into slavery, and resettle in America.

Wendelin Van Draanen didn't grow up wanting to be a writer, but 30 books later, she's convinced that writing saved her life. Or, at least, saved her from a life of bitterness and despair. Writing helped her sort out what she thought and felt and wanted. And digging deep into fictional characters helped her understand the real people in her life better as well. Wendelin shares what she's learned - about writing, life, and what it takes to live the writing life. This audiobook is packed with practical advice on the craft.

In 1967, a 13-year-old girl named Maureen Wilton set the women's world marathon record, running 26.2 miles in 3:15:23. Nicknamed “Little Mo” by her track teammates, Wilton was already a headline-making athlete. But her accomplishment was greeted with controversy and misogynistic accusations of cheating. Wilton receded into the background, left the sport, and kept her achievement secret. This is the story of what happened and how Maureen found her way back to the sport decades later as the mother of a young runner herself.

In 1892, America was obsessed with a teenage murderess, but it wasn't her crime that shocked the nation - it was her motivation. Nineteen-year-old Alice Mitchell had planned to pass as a man in order to marry her 17-year-old fiancée Freda Ward, but when their love letters were discovered, they were forbidden from ever speaking again. Freda adjusted to this fate with an ease that stunned a heartbroken Alice. Her desperation grew with each unanswered letter - and her father's razor soon went missing. On January 25, Alice publicly slashed her ex-fiancée's throat.

Born in a cabin deep in the backwoods of Kentucky and growing up in a family considered the poorest of the poor, Abraham Lincoln rose to become the 16th president of the United States. As president, he guided the United States through the Civil War, helped end slavery in America, and strengthened the federal government. This third installment in the Making of America series continues the story of the first 100 years of America's constitutional history, a story that began with Alexander Hamilton and Andrew Jackson.

Musical.ly megastar and recording artist Baby Ariel tells the inspiring story behind her empire of more than 35 million fans. Full of revealing personal anecdotes and advice! Ariel is all about opening up and being goofy, funny, and completely herself. In her debut audiobook, she talks about every step of her amazing journey: from the good (like being on the cover of Billboard, filming music videos for her original songs, and meeting her amazing fans) to the bad (like overcoming anxiety, handling breakups, and dealing with haters and bullies).

This timely and media-driven approach to the Parkland shooting, as reported by teens in the journalism and broadcasting programs and in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas newspaper, is an inside look at that tragic day and the events that followed that only they could tell. It showcases how the teens have become media savvy and the skills they have learned and honed. Students will also share specific insight into what it has been like being approached by the press and how that has informed the way they interview their own subjects.

After rising to national fame as the general who defeated the British in the Battle of New Orleans, Jackson ran for president as a political outsider, championing the interest of common farmers and frontiersmen. Determined to take down the wealthy, well-educated East Coast elites, he pledged to destroy the national bank, which he believed was an engine of corruption serving the interest of bankers and industrialists. A staunch nationalist, he sought to secure and expand the nation's borders.