American Child

Meet the man who changed the game forever. Michael Jordan has always been competitive - even as a young boy, he fought for attention. His need to be the best made him a star player on his college basketball team and helped him become an NBA legend, both for his skills and his endorsements. His Nike contract for Air Jordan basketball shoes set an unmatched precedent for professional athletes. Author Kirsten Anderson takes listeners through each exciting moment, detailing the iconic reverse lay-ups and jump shots of Michael Jordan's storied career.

“The People Could Fly,” the title story in Virginia Hamilton’s prize-winning American Black folktale collection, is a fantasy tale of the slaves who possessed the ancient magic words that enabled them to literally fly away to freedom. And it is a moving tale of those who did not have the opportunity to “fly” away, who remained slaves with only their imaginations to set them free as they told and retold this tale.

Maya’s grandmother, Halmunee, may be losing her memory, but there’s something almost magical about the way she cooks. Whether Halmunee serves salty miyeokguk or sweet songpyeon, her stories about Korea come to life for Maya. Then one day, something extraordinary happens: a single delicious bite of patbingsu transports Maya and Halmunee back into one of Halmunee’s memories. Suddenly they’re in Seoul, and Halmunee is young. This is just the first of many secrets Maya will uncover: that she and her grandmother can time-travel, and they aren’t the only ones with this ability.

In Cuba, it is believed that a mysterious water serpent - the Madre de aguas - is responsible for providing and protecting the fresh water of the island. But the serpent is missing, and a drought has gripped the island. Uchenna, Elliot, and Professor Fauna fly to Cuba and endeavor to rescue the Madre de aguas. Unfortunately, it tries to kill them. Meanwhile, the Schmoke Brothers' goons are driving around Havana, dumping pink sludge into the sewers. What is going on? Can Elliot and Uchenna end the drought?

One of the most well-known constellations in the night sky, the Big Dipper, traces its origins to a Native American legend. Many animals attempted to break through Sky in order to spread light and warmth onto the Earth. Only one of them, a Great Bear—also known as Ursa Major—succeeds. How does Great Spirit reward him?

White Rabbit, an Ojibwe Native American, helplessly watches as her village begins to suffer from a deadly winter disease. When her brother Running Wolf falls ill, she plans to bring back more healing herbs from a neighboring village. When White Rabbit races through the snow, she ends up leaving behind a new flower that appears in the spring.

In this story from the Abenaki people, the Native Americans who lives in New England long ago, you’ll learn how one starving man learned to grow a new crop to feed himself.

In this story from the Native Americans of the Pacific Northwest, you’ll learn how the trickster raven brings light back to the world from a greedy chief.

Granny warns Tukama not be tricked by the duppies—or ghosts—of their Caribbean island.

From the award-winning NBC News and MSNBC correspondent comes a powerful and deeply reported journey to lay bare the full truth behind the defining moral crisis of the Trump years: the systematic separation of thousands of desperate migrant families at the US-Mexico border....

Celebrated for her nonfiction books aimed at young readers and listeners, award-winning author Suzanne Tripp Jurmain illuminates historical figures in fun and engaging ways. Worst of Friends draws listeners into the earliest days of America's history to profile the friendship and rivalry that grew between Founding Fathers Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, both of whom would go on to become president of the United States.

In 1962, Jerry Sherwood gave up her newborn son, Dennis, for adoption. Twenty years later, she set out to find him - only to discover he had died before his fourth birthday. Harold and Lois Jurgens, a middle-class, churchgoing couple in picturesque White Bear Lake, Minnesota, had adopted Dennis and five other foster children. To all appearances, they were a normal Midwestern family, but Jerry suspected that something sinister had happened in the Jurgens household. She demanded to know the truth about her son's death.

Ever hear of a feller named John Henry? They say he was born with a 10 pound hammer in his hand! As a man, John was the fastest steel drivin' man helpin' to build the railroad. So when a stranger challenged mighty John to take on a steam drill, what do you think that John Henry did? Kick off yer' boots and listen to this fascinatin' tale of John Henry and the steam drill.

Shattered Bonds tells this story as no other book has before - from the perspective of a prominent Black, female legal theoretician. The current state of the child-welfare system in America is a well-known tragedy. Thousands of children every year are removed from their parents' homes, often for little reason other than the endemic poverty that afflicts women and children more than any other group in the United States.

A Bollywood star. Unfortunately, her family won't stand for it. It doesn't help that Reena is only eight years old. However, a beacon of hope arrives in the form of Uncle Jessi. He's just emigrated from India to America, and is a welcome addition to her family household. Uncle Jessi and Reena share a special bond. Not only are they old pen pals, but he recognizes her desperation to become a Bollywood actress.

It's 1955, and Benjamin Burrows and Janie Scott are trying to live a safe, normal life in America. It's not easy when they have the power to prevent nuclear disaster, and sinister forces are circling. Soon the advice of a mysterious, unscrupulous magician propels Janie and Benjamin into danger and toward the land of the dead.

Now that Clara is almost in third grade, she’s finally old enough to spend her first summer away from home visiting her grandma, Unci, and her cousin at their home in Standing Rock Reservation. To welcome her visit, Uncle Louie brings an extra-special surprise in his pickup truck: the tipi that’s been passed down through their family for generations. The girls learn how to stack the poles and wrap the canvas covering around them, how to paint spirit pictures on its walls, and how the circle of the tipi tells its own story, reminding us to how to live in the great Circle of Life.

When a black snake threatens to destroy the Earth and poison her people’s water, one young water protector takes a stand to defend Earth’s most sacred resource.

Learn about the bomb blast that rocked the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church on Sunday morning, September 15, 1963, killing four young girls.

What would you find in a time capsule of the Jamestown Colony? Perhaps a portrait of John Smith, glass beads, or skeletal remains? Listeners examine artifacts like these as they explore the history of the first permanent English settlement in North America in this Time Capsule History book.