We can't get enough of this author/illustrator duo. They discover the most interesting individuals and masterfully shape the telling by relating familiar, present-day experiences with their characters' experiences, enabling details to stick. In this telling, William Carlos Williams faces the difficulty of balancing the need to earn a living with pursuing his artistic endeavors. He manages to estab ...

Lester tells her personal story, sharing her struggles as a child and later as a successful author. Using her unique ability to laugh at her mistakes, Lester creates a guide for young writers and an amusing personal story of the disappointments and triumphs of a writer's life. Full color.

Charming free verse vignettes from the childhood of Jacqueline Woodson draw the reader into a life rich with feelings, scents, sounds, and sensations within an African-American family. Mentions of Rosa Parks, the Civil Rights marches and segregated lunch counters provide great points of discussion. However, the focus is simple family times: catching fireflies, church meetings, Saturday night shamp ...

A Step 3 Biography Reader about Theodor Geisel and his transformation from a doodler into the beloved Dr. Seuss. Little Ted Geisel always had a sketchpad and pencil in hand. He was a Boy Scout with a penchant for creating zany creatures. He grew up with a love of books and words from his mother, and his inventor father spawned a wildly imaginative and perfectionist side. It's no wonder that these ...

Laura Ingalls Wilder grew up listening to her Pa's fascinating tales about living on the prairies, in the woods, and on the plains. When she was 65 years old, Laura began to write down her most treasured memories and tales from her youth. Children of all ages have come to love and treasure the books that resulted. Enter the fascinating world of the little girl who once lived in a little house on t ...

A love of words carries a young man from the shackles of slavery to poetic heights in this brilliant biography. The story is inspiring, and appropriately, the illustrations have a very upward and uplifting orientation. A beautiful tribute to a man who was indeed remarkable!

"The use of language...[functions] as an instrument of thought; not being merely its vehicle, but giving it wings for flight." - Peter Mark Roget Roget's delight with language oozes from these pages. Illustrations, mostly hand-drawn give the sense Roget is telling his own story -- how curiosity and wonder drove his search to capture a moment or thought or concept with just the right word. His v ...

Using her characteristically thorough and animated words and pictures and quotations from Shakespeare's plays, Aliki has created a five-act masterpiece that is the definitive introduction to the playwright and his world.

Heartwarming watercolor illustrations depict the delight Harry Coleburn, military veterinarian took in his new charge, Winnifred the black bear. While the storyline follows the endearing role Winnie played among soldiers at military camps, it conveys the critical role animal health played during World War I, a time when horses played the role of today's heavy equipment. The well-woven story comes ...