Synopsis: B95 can feel it: a stirring in his bones and feathers. It's time. Today is the day he will once again cast himself into the air, spiral upward into the clouds, and bank into the wind.He wears a black band on his lower right leg and an orange flag on his upper left, bearing the laser inscription B95. Scientists call him the Moonbird because, in the course of his astoundingly long lifetime, this gritty, four-ounce marathoner has flown the distance…

Synopsis: When two strangers enter his life, M.C. Higgins learns the answer to saving his home and family from the slag heap of an Ohio strip mine. "All of the characters have vitality and credibility as well as a unique quality that makes them unforgettable . . ".--The Horn Book. Newbery Medal; National Book Award; ALA Notable Children's Book; School Library Journal Best of the Best; New York Times Outstanding Children's Books of the Year.

Synopsis: This account traces the contributions made to aviation history by African Americans from before World War I to the astronaut Mae Jemison. Bowker Authored Title code. Paving the way for Guy Bluford were many pioneers who overcame the limitations imposed by discrimination…

Synopsis: Into a memoir that is gripping, funny, heartbreaking, and unforgettable, Walter Dean Myers richly weaves the details of his Harlem childhood in the 1940s and 1950s: a loving home life with his adopted parents, Bible school, street games, and the vitality of his neighborhood. Although Walter spent much of his time either getting into trouble or on the basketball court, secretly he was a voracious reader and an aspiring writer. But as his…

Synopsis: Before there was Game of Thrones, there was Beowulf...SONG OF BATTLE AND KINGSBeowulf is one of the earliest extant poems in a modern European language, composed in England before the Norman Conquest. As a social document this great epic poem is invaluable—reflecting a feudal world of heroes and monsters, blood and victory, life and death. As a work of art, it is unique. Beowulf rings with beauty, power, and artistry that have kept it alive for…

Synopsis: Jessie, Troy, and the rest of the crew from Downriver have returned to the Grand Canyon for adventure down the Colorado River. In the year since they last were together, each has changed; each feels more mature. But how will they interact now that they are facing new challenges--challenges greater than anything they've had to deal with at home? For Troy, it is a chance to prove he can be a team player, someone worthy of friendship and love. For…

Synopsis: "Never before, in the entire history of the American theater, has so much of the truth of Black people's lives been seen on the stage," observed James Baldwin shortly before A Raisin in the Sun opened on Broadway in 1959.This edition presents the fully restored, uncut version of Hansberry's landmark work with an introduction by Robert Nemiroff.Lorraine Hansberry's award-winning drama about the hopes and aspirations of a struggling, working-class…

Synopsis: #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the author of the runaway phenomenon Unbroken comes a universal underdog story about the horse who came out of nowhere to become a legend. “Fascinating . . . Vivid . . . A first-rate piece of storytelling, leaving us not only with a vivid portrait of a horse but a fascinating slice of American history as well.”—The New York TimesA KIRKUS REVIEWS BEST NONFICTION BOOK OF THE CENTURYSeabiscuit was one of the most…

Synopsis: Kidd is running from his past and his future. No mom, no dad, and there's nothing for him at the group home but therapy. He doesn't belong at the beach where he works either, unless he finds a reason to stay. Olivia is blond hair, blue eyes, rich dad. The prettiest girl in Cardiff. She's hiding something from Kidd--but could they ever be together anyway? Devon is mean, mysterious, and driven by a death wish. A best friend and worst enemy. He…

Synopsis: NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD WINNER • A deep and compassionate novel about a young man who returns to 1940s Cajun country to visit a Black youth on death row for a crime he didn't commit. Together they come to understand the heroism of resisting."An instant classic." —Chicago TribuneA “majestic, moving novel...an instant classic, a book that will be read, discussed and taught beyond the rest of our lives" (Chicago Tribune), from the…

Synopsis: The Old Man and the Sea is one of Hemingway's most enduring works. Told in language of great simplicity and power, it is the story of an old Cuban fisherman, down on his luck, and his supreme ordeal -- a relentless, agonizing battle with a giant marlin far out in the Gulf Stream.Here Hemingway recasts, in strikingly contemporary style, the classic theme of courage in the face of defeat, of personal triumph won from loss. Written in 1952, this…

Synopsis: A haunting examination of groupthink and mass hysteria in a rural communityA Penguin Classic   "I believe that the reader will discover here the essential nature of one of the strangest and most awful chapters in human history," Arthur Miller wrote in an introduction to The Crucible, his classic play about the witch-hunts and trials in seventeenth-century Salem, Massachusetts. Based on historical people and real events, Miller's drama is a…

Synopsis: Former slave, impassioned abolitionist, brilliant writer, newspaper editor and eloquent orator whose speeches fired the abolitionist cause, Frederick Douglass (1818–1895) led an astounding life. Physical abuse, deprivation and tragedy plagued his early years, yet through sheer force of character he was able to overcome these obstacles to become a leading spokesman for his people. In this, the first and most frequently read of his three…

Synopsis: Hard-hitting historical fictionEver since his father ran off two years before, fifteen-year-old Johnny Woods has struggled to help support his ma and five siblings, sacrificing his own schooling in the process. Still, there's been hardly enough money each month to make the rent, and Johnny's dream of a house in Brooklyn, away from the tenement slums, is out of reach. Then Johnny discovers boxing. He is a natural-born fighter, with street smarts…

Synopsis: First published in 1895, America's greatest novel of the Civil War was written before 21-year-old Stephen Crane had "smelled even the powder of a sham battle." But this powerful psychological study of a young soldier's struggle with the horrors, both within and without, that war strikes the reader with its undeniable realism and with its masterful descriptions of the moment-by-moment riot of emotions felt by me under fire. Ernest Hemingway…