Nonfiction Biography

The fascinating Mexican artist Frida Kahlo is remembered for her self-portraits, her dramatic works featuring bold and vibrant colors. Her work brought attention to Mexican and indigenous culture, and she is also renowned for her works celebrating the female form. Brown's story recounts Frida's beloved pets - two monkeys, a parrot, three dogs, two turkeys, an eagle, a black cat, and a fawn - and playfully considers how Frida embodied many wonderful characteristics of each animal.

World-famous zoologist Dian Fossey is remembered for her inspiring work studying the mountain gorillas of central Africa’s isolated Virunga Mountains. Her tireless devotion to understanding - and actively protecting - these shy and gentle primates introduced them to an admiring public and promoted values of conservation in the African nations they inhabit. In 1966, Dian Fossey left home for Africa to conduct field research on mountain gorillas. It was her second trip to Africa, but it wouldn’t be her last.

When Clara arrived in America, she couldn't speak English. She didn't know that young women had to go to work, that they traded an education for long hours of labor, that she was expected to grow up fast. But that didn't stop Clara. She went to night school, spent hours studying English, and helped support her family by sewing in a shirtwaist factory. Clara never quit, and she never accepted that girls should be treated poorly and paid little.

Both Thomas Edison and Henry Ford started off as insatiably curious tinkerers. That curiosity led them to become inventors - with very different results. As Edison invented hit after commercial hit, gaining fame and fortune, Henry struggled to make a single invention (an affordable car) work. Witnessing Thomas' glorious career from afar, a frustrated Henry wondered about the secret to his success.

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.

The author of the Mutts comic strip and several best-selling children’s books, Patrick McDonnell has been hailed as the next Charles Schulz. In his characteristic heartwarming style, McDonnell tells the story of the young Jane Goodall and her special childhood toy chimpanzee, Jubilee. With anecdotes from Goodall’s autobiography, McDonnell makes this true story accessible for the very young - and young at heart.

Girls cannot be drummers. Long ago on an island filled with music, no one questioned that rule - until the drum dream girl. In her city of drumbeats, she dreamed of pounding tall congas and tapping small bongós. She had to keep quiet. She had to practice in secret. But when at last her dream-bright music was heard, everyone sang and danced and decided that both girls and boys should be free to drum and dream.

A successful journalist, Victoria Griffith, makes her first foray into children's fiction with the story of Alberto Santos-Dumont, the larger-than- life Brazilian who many argue flew before the Wright brothers. It was 1906 in Paris when Alberto, challenged by a fellow inventor, turned his dirigible into a flying machine and cemented his place in the history of flight.

Nearly eight feet tall, Captain Bates arrives in Seville, Ohio, with his head sticking out of the train window. He and his wife - who is just as tall - are tired of being in the circus and are looking for a nice place to live. But is Seville big enough?

When Lydia was five years old, she and her family had to leave their home. They hopped from Grandma's house to Aunt Linda's house to Cousin Alice's house, but no place was permanent. Then one day, everything changed: Lydia's mom took her to a new place - not a house but a big building with stone columns and tall tall steps. The library. In the library, Lydia found her special spot across from the sunny window at a round desk. For behind that desk was her new friend, the librarian.

After years of harsh monsoon seasons, a forest on the river island of Majuli is in danger of being slowly washed away. Jadav is determined to save the forest he loves. This is the true story of how one young boy dedicated his life to creating and cultivating an expansive forest that continues to grow to this day. In a world impacted by climate change, Jadav Payeng’s inspirational story shows how one person’s contributions can make a difference in helping to save our environment.

A delicious romp through the heyday of rock and roll and a revealing portrait of the man at the helm of the iconic magazine that made it all possible, with candid look backs at the era from Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Elton John, Bono, Bruce Springsteen, Paul McCartney, and others. The story...

From environmental activist, renowned crusader, champion fighter, maverick—a book that looks at our present situation with water and shows us how we can each take action to make changes in our cities, towns, and villages, before it is too late. "Brockovich is a vocal, no-nonsense...

LONGLISTED FOR THE 2024 INTERNATIONAL BOOKER PRIZE “An intimate story from the family archive that is also the infamous history of our continent.”—Valeria Luiselli, author of Lost Children Archive Award-winning Peruvian journalist Gabriela Wiener delivers her stunning English breakthrough...

The eye-opening true story of Tom Cruise, from #1 New York Times bestselling biographer Andrew Morton. Everyone knows Tom Cruise--or at least what he wants us to know. We know that he overcame a difficult childhood to star in astonishing array of blockbusters: Top Gun, Rain Man, Born on the...

The deepest cave on earth was a prize that had remained unclaimed for centuries, long after every other ultimate discovery had been made: both poles by 1912, Everest in 1958, the Challenger Deep in 1961. In 1969 we even walked on the moon. And yet as late as 2000, the earth’s deepest...

I believe we were put on this earth to enjoy lives of joy and abundance, and that is what I want for you and for me. It's not my intention to give people advice on how to solve their problems (I leave that to my husband). But I've had my share of struggles over the years, and I know a thing or...

From the award-winning author of Beasts of No Nation and Speak No Evil, an insightful and deeply relevant collection of essays about America on the 250th anniversary of its founding. Known for his piercing understanding of race in America, Uzodinma Iweala delivers a concise collection of essays...

A fresh, unforgettable, and deeply personal true story of World War II, the Holocaust, and the Third Reich that brings to light the vile Nazi policy under which Germans with Jewish ancestry were persecuted and condemned to death—including two young children from an ordinary working-class...

God's Immeasurable Grace. It's the most important ingredient for the perfect love story. Tragic circumstances often stretch relationships to their breaking point. But God's grace is always more than enough. For Ken and Joni Eareckson Tada, enduring quadriplegia, chronic pain, cancer, and...