Books with author David Kotting

First People tells the story of Native Americans—from their arrival on the continent 10,000 years ago to their search for identity in the modern world. Avoiding standard clichés and easy generalizations, the book presents each tribe as an individual, evolving culture, with its own history, artwork, and traditions. With a wealth of modern and historic images, innovative page layouts, and compelling first-person accounts, this is an eye-opening look at the richness and variety of North American tribes, and a moving account of the European conquest.

Jimmy Cruze, a 14-year-old boy, and his Border Collie Starr, live on a ranch outside of Payson Arizona. Set in the 1960's, when "Social Media" was reading the newspaper. Jimmy and his friend Mike Dodson, along with Starr, encounter adventures and mysteries during their Summer Vacation. Jimmy has a 16-year-old sister Jean Ann, who wants to become a professional rodeo barrel racer. Their Uncle Doug, a retired Army helicopter pilot, manages the ranch, sometimes doing it from the air in his modified Apache helicopter. Doug is also the guardian for Jimmy and Jean Ann after they lost their parents in an auto accident several years earlier. The Circle C Ranch raises cattle and horses, but is also a dude ranch for guests wanting to experience ranch life. Doug's Aunt Sara manages the large ranch house, and Dusty Gillum is the ranch foreman. There are rustic bunkhouse cabins for the ranch guests to stay in. Many interesting and mysterious stories are told around the campfire.

The ""Dust Bowl"" describes both a time in American history (mid-1930s) and a region (the Great Plains). Severe weather, misuse of land by farmers, and economic pressures from the Great Depression meant that farmers and families in a large area of the central U.S. were faced with loss of usable land, lack of work, and poverty. This is their story, told in their words and in photographs. Included are newspaper accounts, letters, interviews, memoirs, songs, government documents, FDR's Second New Deal, and an excerpt from Steinbeck's ""Grapes of Wrath.""