Books with author JB Adkins

Bridge building is given fascinating life in this accessible, wonderfully illustrated study. Ranging from ancient Rome to the present day, from simple log bridges to marvels of industrial technology, and from well-known landmarks to little-known feats of engineering and art, this book gives readers a new appreciation for that most familiar of structures, the bridge.

Filled with archival photographs and amazing facts, this groundbreaking series introduces young readers to some of history's most interesting and influential characters. The series now features a refreshed design, taking the series' original look in a more modern direction. Thomas Edison tells the story of the famous inventor, from his childhood as an "addled" student, to his reign as the "Wizard of Menlo Park," where he developed the electric light bulb, the phonograph, and many other inventions still in use today.

Frank Lloyd Wright was the most influential architect of the twentieth century—and a rogue genius whose life was a wild ride. Wright routinely ignored unpaid bills, clients’ wishes, budget constraints. Only his creative vision mattered to him. That vision transformed the way we live, sweeping aside the Victorian home and creating a uniquely American architecture exemplified by his Prairie Style houses. Wright built hotels, churches, and offices, too, incorporating endless innovations in techniques and materials. Ideas poured out of him throughout his long career; he called it “shaking the design out of my sleeve.” Jan Adkins’s fascinating biography of this compelling, infuriating, largerthan- life figure will change the way every reader looks at architecture.

What seems like a series of unconnected anecdotes become the threads that bind together the story of three people, and one very unusual year at Col. Devitt Caudill Memorial High School. The Boy Who Skipped tells three intertwined stories: Jeff Mason auditions for the school play as a favor to his older sister. He is a bright science geek, looking for his place in the universe as well as in the hallways of his school. Lynn Anderson is a gifted actress and cheerleader, seeking something to make her life meaningful in her new rural school far from the suburban life she had expected and the suburban life she feared. And young teacher Carol Caudill is determined to bring the beauty and power of theater to a town that would just as soon live without it. . .and heaven help anyone who stands in her way. The story is set in a small town in 1970's Eastern Kentucky. Based on real events, it tells stories about how these three people and a group of young actors set out to do what everyone told them was impossible.