Real Women

Simone Biles was raised by a single mother with addiction issues, forcing her grandparents to intervene. But Simone soon discovered balance beams and gymnastics mats, setting her on a path toward Olympic greatness. Carli Lloyd, meanwhile, believed her youth soccer career was really starting to take off, only to be cut from her team. Instead of quitting the sport she loved, Carli rebuilt her confidence, ultimately becoming one of the leaders on the World Cup Champion US Women's Soccer team. The athletes featured in this book met earth-shaking challenges head on, and went on to conquer the sports world.

From the influential and ever-growing movement "I Am Second" comes a remarkable collection of well-known lives transformed from restless to happy by the power of God. When I Am Second launched in 2008, the organization meant simply to tell stories of people whose lives changed utterly when they...

Malala Yousafzai was born and raised in northwest Pakistan where the Taliban forbade girls like her from the basic human right of an education. An activist from a young age, she spoke up against the oppression of her people. In fact, she became such a voice for change that consequently she was shot by the Taliban at the age of 14 for speaking up for what is right and seeking change for her nation. Malala was forced to leave her childhood home and settle in Europe but, even after her near-death experience, she never stopped her activism....

How much of our memory is constructed by imagination? And how does memory shape our lives? As a nine-year old, Elizabeth Farnsworth struggled to understand the loss of her mother. On a cross-country trip with her father, the heartsick child searches for her mother at train stations along the way. Even more, she confronts mysteries: death, time, and a mysteriously locked compartment on the train. Weaving a child's experiences with memories from reporting in danger zones like Cambodia and Iraq, Farnsworth explores how she came to cover mass death and disaster.