Nonfiction World

As German tanks rolled toward Paris in late May 1940, the US Ambassador to France, William Bullitt, was determined to stay put, holed up in the Chateau St. Firmin in Chantilly, his country residence. Bullitt told the president that he would neither evacuate the embassy nor his chateau. As German forces closed in on the French capital, Bullitt wrote the president, "In case I should get blown up before I see you again, I want you to know that it has been marvelous to work for you."

In this revealing insight into a little-known aspect of British wartime history, Helen Fry documents the stories of those who fought for king and adopted country. Based on interviews with veterans and drawing on a rich vein of source material, the author sets their personal stories against the bigger picture of the experience of enemy aliens in Britain during the Second World War.

In September 1943, as America began advancing from its foothold on Guadalcanal, a young American airman was lost in heavy weather over the South Pacific on what was expected to be a routine flight. In examining that loss and the events leading up to a rescue attempt on an island in the South Pacific, and bringing together societies utterly alien to each other, Survival in the South Pacific brings together the big themes of the Pacific War.

Amid the constant rain of German bombs and the escalating violence of World War II, British parents by the thousands chose to send their children out of the country: the wealthy, independently; the poor, through a government relocation program called CORB. In September 1940, passenger liner SS City of Benares set out in a convoy of 19 ships sailing for Canada. On board were 90 CORB children, chaperones, and crew, along with paying passengers. When the war ships escorting the Benares to safe waters peeled off, a German submarine attacked and torpedoed the Benares.

A Is for Awesome provided an ABC of amazing women from throughout history. 3 2 1 Awesome counted down some of their most amazing accomplishments. Now with their third concept board book original, Colors of Awesome!, the New York Times best-selling dynamic duo Eva Chen and Derek Desierto pairs groundbreaking feminist icons with all the colors of the rainbow and beyond.

Author Teri Kanefield examines the life of America’s famous suffragette, Susan B. Anthony, who was born into a world in which men ruled women. She began her public career as a radical abolitionist, and after the Civil War, she became an international figurehead of the women’s suffrage movement.

Malala Yousafzai was a girl who loved to learn but was told that girls would no longer be allowed to go to school. She wrote a blog that called attention to what was happening in her beautiful corner of Pakistan and realized that words can bring about change. She has continued to speak out for the right of all children to have an education. In 2014, she won the Nobel Peace Prize.

This engaging biography series focuses on the traits that made our heroes great - the traits that kids can aspire to in order to live heroically themselves. Each book tells the story of an icon in a lively, conversational way that works well for the youngest nonfiction listeners. This volume features Anne Frank, whose courage and hope during a time of terror are still an inspiration for people around the world today.

Rising from poverty-stricken Louisville in the 1950s, Ali became one of the world's greatest athletes. Beginning life as Cassius Clay, Ali would struggle against opponents both in and out of the ring. Segregation and racism stood as obstacles in his path, but as he climbed the boxing ranks, his social conscience grew. He refused to be pigeonholed as a stereotypical black athlete in the 1960s and changed his name to Muhammad Ali after converting to Islam.

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist William Tuohy follows Richard O'Kane, America's undersea ace of aces, and a few fearless submariners, during the U.S. submarine war in the Pacific. This grueling battle saw 10 million tons of Japanese shipping sunk by U.S. submarines, but the cost to the U.S. Navy was one in five of its boats, the highest casualty rate of the U.S. armed services.

For more than a millennium, the Byzantine Empire presided over the juncture between East and West, as well as the transition from the classical to the modern world. Rather than recounting the standard chronology of emperors and battles, leading Byzantium scholar Jonathan Harris focuses on a succession of archetypal figures, families, places, and events.

As a child he dreamt of changing South Africa; as a man he changed the world. Nelson Mandela spent his life battling apartheid and championing a peaceful revolution. He spent 27 years in prison and emerged as the inspiring leader of the new South Africa. He became the country’s first Black president and went on to live his dream of change.

This Highlights Listen & Learn! Audio Study, intended for those in grade four, introduces listeners to the rich culture and long history of El Salvador, a country in Central America. In addition to learning about El Salvador, listeners will be introduced to comprehension skills that will help them better understand the story. These skills include cause-and-effect, identifying sequence of events, and vocabulary-building.

This eye-opening memoir tells the story of a young girl's life in Syria, her family's wrenching decision to leave their home, and the upheaval of life in a refugee camp. Though her life had utterly changed, one thing remained the same. She knew that education was the key to a better future—for herself, and so that she could help her country. She went from tent to tent in the camp, trying to convince other kids, especially girls, to come to school. And her passion and dedication soon had people calling her the "Malala of Syria."

When Temple Grandin was born, her parents knew that she was different. It wasn’t until years later that she was diagnosed with autism, a brain disorder that makes communication difficult. Today, Dr. Temple Grandin is a scientist and professor of animal science at Colorado State University. Her career has revolutionized the livestock industry - each year, half the cattle in the United States are handled in cruelty-free facilities she designed. She is also a passionate advocate for autism, using her experience to prove that people with this disorder can have “normal” lives.

Since 2012 the organization Girls Who Code has taught computing skills to and inspired over 10,000 girls across America. Now its founder, Reshma Saujani, wants to inspire you to be a girl who codes! Bursting with down-to-earth explanations of coding principles and real-life stories of girls and women working at places like Pixar and NASA, this audiobook shows what a huge role computer science plays in our lives and how much fun it can be.

Have you ever heard about the cookie-cutter shark, which bites out cookie-shaped morsels of flesh from much larger animals than itself? Or the goblin shark, which was thought to have become extinct 100 million years ago until a living specimen was discovered in 1898? And did you know that the whale shark has jaws the size of a 12-year-old child? The earth is home to over one billion sharks across 500 different species, and there's so much to learn about these ancient rulers of the ocean!

You might think that there's not much to jellyfish, but this audiobook will make you think again. Did you know that jellyfish can thrive in waters that would suffocate other sea creatures? Or that some jellyfish can flash different colours from purple to green? Or that they have the world's most powerful venom? There is even a jellyfish that is immortal! There are more than 2000 kinds of jellyfish, and they're one of the few creatures that will thrive in warmer waters due to climate change – yikes!

There's more to snakes than them being venomous and cold-blooded. Did you know a snake can still grow even when it hasn't eaten for months? Or that snakes have flexible jaws that allow them to eat prey that's much larger than them? Or that snakes are masters of disguise? With more than 3700 sub-species around the world, there's a snake to delight and frighten every kind of listener, from Australia's deadly Eastern brown snake to the green anaconda, the heaviest snake in the world. Not to mention the teeny-tiny Barbados thread snake, which is half as long as a pencil!

There's so much more to elephants than their enormous size! Have you heard about their excellent memory or their adorable sense of humour? Did you know that they actually walk on their tippy toes? And wait till you see who their cousins are – you're in for a surprise! Elephants can live until the age of 70 and are Earth's most intelligent giants, with incredible communication and relationship-building abilities.