Library History

Written by Newbery, National Book Award, and Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal winner Katherine Paterson The Johnsons are becoming country music stars. They're on TV and the radio--and it's all because of James. His voice and his guitar playing bring the songs to life, and make the audiences beg for...

From two-time Newbery award-winning author Katherine Paterson. When Lyddie and her younger brother are hired out as servants to help pay off their family farm's debts, Lyddie is determined to find a way to reunite her family once again. Hearing about all the money a girl can make working in the...

“A funny and wise book about friendship, loyalty, and love.”—Karen Cushman Johanna is a servant girl to Dame Margery Kempe, a renowned medieval holy woman. Dame Margery feels the suffering the Virgin Mary felt for her son but cares little for the misery she sees every day. When she...

Winner of the 2017 Odyssey Award for Excellence in Audiobook Production A New York Times Bestseller A Booklist Editors’ Choice Audio An AudioFile Best Audiobook of the Year A Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year A Shelf Awareness Best Book of the Year A Bulletin Blue Ribbon Book Winner...

My dad used to be Abraham Lincoln. When I was six and learning to read, I saw his initials were A.B.E., Albert Baruch Edelman. ABE. That’s when I knew. Mina Edelman believes that she and her family are the Lincolns reincarnated. Her main tasks for the next three months: to protect her father...

Newbery Honor medalist Ann M. Martin's "unforgettable" (Booklist, starred) family story. In 1963, Ellie's mother, Doris Day Dingman, was crowned the Bosetti Beauty at Mr. Bosetti's supermarket, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, and the Dingmans began to fall apart." So begins 11-yr-old...

Twelve-year-old Joan is sure that she is going to hate her new home–but almost right away she finds a kindred spirit. “You’re lucky I didn’t just start throwing rocks at you. I can hide in the trees and nail a kid with a rock from thirty feet away.” That’s Sarah, who prefers to be...

When superstar athlete Jim Thorpe and football legend Pop Warner met in 1904 at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania, they forged one of the winningest teams in American football history. Called "the team that invented football," they took on the best opponents of their day...

Two Jewish sisters leave Austria during WWII/Holocaust and find refuge in Sweden. It's the summer of 1939. Two Jewish sisters from Vienna—12-year-old Stephie Steiner and 8-year-old Nellie—are sent to Sweden to escape the Nazis. They expect to stay there six months, until their parents can...

Mercy Kaplan doesn’t want to be like her mother, saddled with crying kids and failing crops for the rest of her life. Mercy longs to be on her own—until her wish comes true in the worst possible way. It is 1918 and a deadly flu epidemic ravages the country, leaving her utterly alone and...

Debut novelist Lisa Lewis Tyre vibrantly brings a small town and its outspoken characters to life, as she explores race and other community issues from both the Civil War and the present day. Lou might be only twelve, but she’s never been one to take things sitting down. So when her Civil...

Rosa’s mother is singing again, for the first time since Papa died in an accident in the mills. But instead of filling their cramped tenement apartment with Italian lullabies, Mamma is out on the streets singing union songs. Rosa is terrified that her mother and older sister, Anna, are...

A riveting historical art mystery for fans of Chasing Vermeer and The Westing Game, set in the Roaring Twenties! It's 1929, and twelve-year-old Martha has no choice but to work as a maid in the New York City mansion of the wealthy Sewell family. But, despite the Gatsby-like parties and trimmings...

Draft your own presidential fantasy team, based on these hilarious-but-true profiles of our past leaders, in this fun and funny illustrated book perfect for fans of How They Croaked: The Awful Ends of the Awfully Famous and Kid Presidents! What if a zombie apocalypse or a robot uprising...

From the founder of The Cramm, a news outlet by and for the incredible Gen Z activists who are already shaping our global future (really!), this book is a dive into the history that's made the world what it is today. You can take a stand for justice. You can raise your voice to make a difference...

New York Times bestselling author and Newbery Honor recipient Steve Sheinkin welcomes young listeners to the thrilling, tragic, and downright wild historic adventure of America’s westward expansion in Which Way to the Wild West? Everything Your Schoolbooks Didn’t Tell You About...

Winner of the 2003 International Reading Association Award for Young Adult Novel. This gripping story is based on the true events of the murder of Emmett Till, one of the nation's most notorious crimes that helped spark the Civil Rights Movement. At first Hiram is excited to visit his...

Jon Fasman’s dizzyingly plotted intellectual thriller suggests a marriage between Dan Brown and Donna Tartt. When reporter Paul Tomm is assigned to investigate the mysterious death of a reclusive academic, he finds himself pursuing leads that date back to the twelfth century and the theft of...

The dream of capturing and organizing knowledge is as old as history. From the archives of ancient Sumeria and the Library of Alexandria to the Library of Congress and Wikipedia, humanity has wrestled with the problem of harnessing its intellectual output. The timeless quest for wisdom has been as much about information storage and retrieval as creative genius. In Cataloging the World, Alex Wright introduces us to a figure who stands out in the long line of thinkers and idealists who devoted themselves to the task.

Myths! Lies! Recycling scams? Discover the real story behind the first Earth Day celebration and some of the biggest US climate catastrophes--and their solutions! Don't miss the award-winning History Smashers series as they get to the truth on the biggest environmental fibs! In April 1970...