Showing titles in Literary

Young Pauline Baynes lives in India, a land of towering mountains, sparkling lakes, and bright flowers. She even has a pet monkey that joins her for tea. Then her life takes a turn, and Pauline is sent to dreary England. Books bring light and color to her world, so she sets out to paint the stories she loves. Years later, two iconic authors see her paintings and know she’s the illustrator for their stories—of fire-breathing dragons, towering giants, a golden lion, and four brave children.

How did Jon Scieszka get so funny, anyway? Growing up as one of six brothers was a good start, but that was just the beginning. Throw in Catholic school, lots of comic books, lazy summers at the lake with time to kill, babysitting misadventures, TV shows, jokes told at family dinner, and the result is Knucklehead. Part memoir, part scrapbook, this hilarious trip down memory lane provides a unique glimpse into the formation of a creative mind and a free spirit.

In 1995, on a four-hour-delayed train from Manchester to London, J. K. Rowling conceived of the idea of a boy wizard named Harry Potter. Upon arriving in London, she began immediately writing the first book in the saga. Rowling's true-life, rags-to-riches story is as compelling as the world of Hogwarts that she created. This biography details not only Rowling's life and her love of literature but the story behind the creation of a modern classic.

In a heartwarming first-person account, dePaola retells his experiences at home and in school when he was a boy. 26 Fairmount Avenue is full of humor, drama, suspense and just the day to day ups and downs of a little boy's life.

Tomie celebrates his sixth birthday in style, dresses up as Snow White for his first Halloween, celebrates holidays with his family, suffers through a bout of the chicken pox, and gets to stay up to see the new year in!

4 Free Bonuses: E-book on Growth Mindset, Habit Toolkit & More Writing for Kids: Inspiring Stories and Lessons on Creativity and Mental Toughness from Famous Storytellers and Authors Do you want to get fired up with the stories of famous authors? Success stories are as unique as snowflakes. No journey is the same. But they all share one trait: success isn’t handed to them on a silver platter. If you struggle with becoming the best in your field, you’re not alone. Thousands of people have had to find inner strength to push through hard moments and leave their mark in the world of ...

Roald Dahl is one of the most famous children's book authors ever. Now, in this Who Was...? biography, children will learn of his real-life adventures. A flying ace for the British air force, he was married to an Academy Award-winning actress. He also wrote books and screenplays for adults.

In the summer of 1879, the young writer Robert Louis Stevenson received a telegram from America. Fanny, a dear friend in California, was ill. Stevenson packed his bags and left his home in Scotland. When the steamer reached the east coast of America, his journey had just begun. Stevenson had little money, so he traveled across America the cheapest way: he went by train.

Barbara Cooney set her mind to lots of things—none so dear as capturing the beauty of the world in her paintings. These paintings would form the settings for her award-winning picture books, including Chanticleer and the Fox, Ox-Cart Man, Miss Rumphius, Roxaboxen, and others. Follow Barbara from New York to Maine, from the shores of Greece to the mountains of Appalachia, as she captures their beauty and creates some of the most magnificent books for children ever published.

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.

Travel back in time to the 1920s and 1930s to the sounds of jazz in nightclubs and the 24-hours-a-day bustle of the famous Black neighborhood of Harlem in uptown Manhattan. It was a dazzling time when there was an outpouring of the arts of African Americans - the poetry of Langston Hughes; the novels of Zora Neale Hurston; the sculptures of Augusta Savage; and that brand-new music called jazz as only Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong could play it.

A humorist, narrator, and social observer, Mark Twain is unsurpassed in American literature. Best known as the author of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain, not unlike his protagonist, Huck, has a restless spirit. He found adventure prospecting for silver in Nevada, navigating steamboats down the Mississippi, and making people laugh around the world. But Twain also had a serious streak and decried racism and injustice. His fascinating life is captured candidly in this enjoyable biography.

Among these biographies, listeners will find aviators and artists, politicians and pop stars, athletes and activists. The exceptional men featured include artist Aaron Douglas, civil rights leader John Lewis, dancer Alvin Ailey, filmmaker Oscar Micheaux, musician Prince, photographer Gordon Parks, tennis champion Arthur Ashe, and writer James Baldwin.

It seems entirely fitting that Maurice Sendak was born on the same day that Mickey Mouse first made his cartoon debut - June 10, 1928. Sendak was crazy about cartoons and comic books, and at 12, after seeing Disney's Fantasia, he decided that he was going to become an illustrator. His love of children's books began early: Often sick and confined to bed, little Maurice read and read and read.

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.

Dramatic, lyrical, and beautiful, O Captain, My Captain tells the story of one of America’s greatest poets and how he was inspired by one of America’s greatest presidents.

Acclaimed novelist Ibi Zoboi illuminates the young life of the visionary storyteller Octavia E. Butler in poems and prose. Born into the Space Race, the Red Scare, and the dawning Civil Rights Movement, Butler experienced an American childhood that shaped her into the groundbreaking science-fiction storyteller whose novels continue to challenge and delight audiences 15 years after her death.

Roald Dahl, el gran autor de literatura infantil, narra en Volando solo los acontecimientos más fascinantes de su vida. La vida de Roald Dahl estuvo siempre marcada por las ansias de aventuras, en este libro recogió algunos de los acontecimientos más emocionantes de su vida: las increíbles experiencias como piloto de combate en la Segunda Guerra Mundial, el placer de volar, la camaradería en tiempos difíciles y la exótica belleza de sus viajes por África.

Phillis Wheatley was just another child kidnapped into slavery from Senegal, until she began to show enormous intellectual promise, eventually shocking a room of Boston scholars by translating Ovid at the age of 14. Wheatley would go on to become a major voice in the American literary scene and would pave the way for African American writers to come.

In 1926, the very first Winnie-the-Pooh book was published. One hundred years later, generations of kids have grown up in the Hundred Acre Wood. How a Bear Became a Book tells the story of how writer, illustrator, and editor came together to craft Pooh's first adventure. But deeper than that, this book introduces our youngest listeners to how stories begin and where they can go. As Pooh's voice enters the text, he slowly comes to life in the art.