Books with author J.G. Mcpherson

Musicians of every age have hailed Johann Sebastian Bach as one of the greatest composers of all time. Beethoven called Bach “the progenitor of harmony.” He made a pun on the word Bach, which is German for brook, writing that “His name ought not to be Bach, but Ocean.” Johannes Brahms wrote: “Study Bach: there you will find everything.” Claude Debussy wrote: “And if we look at the works of J. S. Bach... on each page we discover things which we thought were born only yesterday, from delightful arabesques to an overflowing of religious feeling greater than anything we have since discovered.” Felix Mendelssohn called his work “the greatest music in the world,” and wrote about one of Bach’s choruses: “If life had taken hope and faith from me, this single chorus would restore all.” The hope and faith that filled the life of Johann Sebastian Bach still lives in the music he wrote to glorify God. His life is a testimony to the hope that is a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul. This book is written on a 5th-8th grade reading level, but younger children will enjoy having it read aloud to them.

Her grandmother doesn’t like to talk about Stella’s parents, even when she asks. But now that she’s in sixth grade, Stella needs answers. A rusty box provides a clue to the place her parents met—Camp Hawthorne—and Stella is determined to go. The camp’s secret draws her into extraordinary possibilities she never knew existed. And despite warnings to leave the past alone, she uncovers a mystery linked to her parents. Now she must decide how much she will risk to find the truth. "THE PANDORA DEVICE is filled with all the ingredients one needs for a rollicking adventure: mad scientists, special powers, a desperate search for missing parents, and...American History? Who knew! Joyce McPherson has created a world at Camp Hawthorne that you will not soon forget, and probably wish you'd attended." -David Yoo, author of THE DETENTION CLUB

From Pulitzer Prize award-winning historian James M. McPherson comes a thrilling account of America's westward expansion. In this sweeping tale of one of the most exciting and colorful periods in our country's growth, Dr. McPherson interweaves the nation's attempts to bind its Civil War wounds through Reconstruction with the triumphant and tragic taming of the American frontier.Into the West contains personal narratives from settlers and soldiers as well as profiles and accounts of the actions of many historical luminaries involved in Reconstruction and the movement west, such as President Andrew Johnson, General George Armstrong Custer, Sitting Bull, General William Tecumseh Sherman, Geronimo, and Wild Bill Hickock. Dr. McPherson also explores the role of women and the development of the arts on the frontier, the role and legend of the cowboy, and the destruction of the Native American way of life in this thought-provoking companion to the bestselling Fields of Fury.Filled with maps, period photos, illustrations, and anecdotes, this vivid retelling of America's journey, Into the West, will fascinate readers, young and old.

A biography of Albrecht Dürer, one of the most influential artists of the Renaissance and Reformation. In addition to creating hundreds of engravings, woodcuts, drawings, and paintings, he wrote books on geometry, fortification, and human proportions. He explored the meaning of beauty in his art textbook, which was called "Food for Young Artists." The Christian worldview which he brought to the field of art is still relevant today. Dürer was counted among the leading intellectuals of the sixteenth century. He witnessed the coming Reformation and made the acquaintance of men such as Erasmus, Martin Luther, Melanchthon, and the Emperor Maximilian. Though he created works of art for wealthy patrons, he made his woodcuts affordable for ordinary people. In this way, Dürer brought the Bible to a wide audience through his brilliant illustrations of the book of Revelation and other themes. This biography includes over twenty illustrations by Albrecht Dürer, who wrote: "Painting is a useful art when it is of a godly sort and employed for holy edification." The life and art of Dürer is food not only for young artists, but for all who seek beauty and truth. This book is written on a 5th-6th grade reading level, but younger children will enjoy having it read aloud to them.

From the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Battle Cry of Freedom, a powerful new reckoning with Jefferson Davis as military commander of the ConfederacyHistory has not been kind to Jefferson Davis. His cause went down in disastrous defeat and left the South impoverished for generations. If that cause had succeeded, it would have torn the United States in two and preserved the institution of slavery. Many Americans in Davis’s own time and in later generations considered him an incompetent leader, if not a traitor. Not so, argues James M. McPherson. In Embattled Rebel, McPherson shows us that Davis might have been on the wrong side of history, but it is too easy to diminish him because of his cause’s failure. In order to understand the Civil War and its outcome, it is essential to give Davis his due as a military leader and as the president of an aspiring Confederate nation.Davis did not make it easy on himself. His subordinates and enemies alike considered him difficult, egotistical, and cold. He was gravely ill throughout much of the war, often working from home and even from his sickbed. Nonetheless, McPherson argues, Davis shaped and articulated the principal policy of the Confederacy with clarity and force: the quest for independent nationhood. Although he had not been a fire-breathing secessionist, once he committed himself to a Confederate nation he never deviated from this goal. In a sense, Davis was the last Confederate left standing in 1865.As president of the Confederacy, Davis devoted most of his waking hours to military strategy and operations, along with Commander Robert E. Lee, and delegated the economic and diplomatic functions of strategy to his subordinates. Davis was present on several battlefields with Lee and even took part in some tactical planning; indeed, their close relationship stands as one of the great military-civilian partnerships in history.Most critical appraisals of Davis emphasize his choices in and management of generals rather than his strategies, but no other chief executive in American history exercised such tenacious hands-on influence in the shaping of military strategy. And while he was imprisoned for two years after the Confederacy’s surrender awaiting a trial for treason that never came, and lived for another twenty-four years, he never once recanted the cause for which he had fought and lost. McPherson gives us Jefferson Davis as the commander in chief he really was, showing persuasively that while Davis did not win the war for the South, he was scarcely responsible for losing it.

A fast-paced adventure for fans of Twilight and The Mortal Instruments. They say love can cross oceans, but can it cross worlds?Dezaray is from Earth.Lexovia is from Coldivor.But when they accidentally trade places… Dezaray is thrust into a world on the brink of war. And the only one powerful enough to stop it is the sorceress, Lexovia.Struggling between surviving in a strange world, moving on from her tormented past and not falling for the boy with blue eyes, Dezaray must also keep her identity hidden, masquerading as Lexovia, so the beasts that hunt the sorceress, don’t learn that she’s left the realm unguarded.But the beasts aren’t the only problem. Lexovia is stuck in England and knows little of the human world. And the sorceress soon discovers that England may carry magical secrets of its own.As both girls strive to find a way to trade back and restore balance to their worlds, Dezaray begins to wonder if that’s what she truly wants. Will she have the strength to leave the boy she loves when the time comes? And will Lexovia find a way to return before it’s too late?

This is the only biography of Calvin available for young people. Joyce focuses on Calvin's childhood and youth, tracing his days at the university and the circumstances of his conversion. She traces his early and precocious leadership of the Protestants in France, and his flight to Basel, Strassburg, and Geneva when King Francis I began executing Protestants. The result is a warm and affectionate picture of the leader of the second generation of the Protestant Reformation. This is a book worth reading out loud to younger students; older students and adults will find it a valuable introduction and aid in understanding the author of The Institutes of the Christian Religion.

For those who love Camp Hawthorne, here's a Christmas novella with Stella, Jayden, Lindsey and Ellen.The first Christmas after Camp Hawthorne was one Stella would never forget. Perhaps it was the surprising powers she found at camp, and it’s true—Christmas was even more magical when Jayden used his levitation powers to hang the lights on his roof and Lindsey sent carols into Stella's mind in the middle of seventh grade math class. But the real adventure started with Ellen, and her unusual gift, and the new neighbor…