NCW Libraries

"This important yet little-known civil rights story focuses on Roberto Alvarez, a student whose 1931 court battle against racism and school segregation in Lemon Grove, California, is considered the first time an immigrant community used the courts to successfully fight injustice. A must-read for young activists, or for anyone interested in standing up for what's right'--

Profiles thirty-five prominent men in African American history, including James Armistead Lafayette, Thurgood Marshall, Alvin Ailey, and Leland Melvin.

Robbie and his dog, Ellie, spend the summer at his grandmother Maddy's house, where Robbie learns many things about his emotionally distant parents and himself.

"Blues guitarist Blind Willie Johnson led a hardscrabble life, but in 1977, NASA's Voyager spacecrafts were launched, each carrying a golden record to introduce planet Earth to the cosmos, and his song "Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground" became the defining anthem. Weaving together elements of Johnson's biography with an account of how a team of astrophysicists, writers, and artists created the golden record for the Voyager mission, Jan Lower...

Cicada is overworked, under appreciated, and generally discriminated against--but after seventeen years he gets to return to the forest, and laugh at the humans.

"Jeannette Rankin was always a take-charge girl. Whether taking care of horses or her little brothers and sisters--Jeannette knew what to do and got the job done. That's why, when she saw poor children living in bad conditions in San Francisco, she knew she had to take charge and change things. But in the early twentieth century, women like Jeannette couldn't vote to change the laws that failed to protect children. Jeannette became an activist and...

"From a lowly mixture of stone, sand, water, and cement have sprung sidewalks, streets, and skyscrapers, . . . lighthouses and . . . palaces, long bridges and massive dams. In ancient building practices, in modern engineering, and in the architecture of the future, humble concrete plays a mighty role in the creation of the human-made world. With facts and . . . running narrative in the form of repartee-filled speech bubbles, [this book] is . . . informative...

Learn the nickname and state bird for each state, plus other state trivia.

"Meg Lowman was always fascinated by the natural world above her head. The colors, the branches, and, most of all, the leaves and mysterious organisms living there. As a scientist, Meg set out to climb up and investigate the rain forest tree canopies-- and to be the first scientist to do so. But she encountered challenge after challenge. Male teachers would not let her into their classrooms, the high canopy was difficult to get to, and worst of all,...

Travels back to China during the Han dynasty with the Binkerton twins as they search for their little sister Libby and learn about Chinese society, inventions, medicine, trade, and structures of the period.