Books published by publisher Calkins Creek

One hundred years ago, a mysterious and alarming illness spread across America's South, striking tens of thousands of victims. No one knew what caused it or how to treat it. People were left weak, disfigured, insane, and in some cases, dead. This book is perfect to share with young readers looking for a historical perspective of the Covid-19/Coronavirus pandemic that is gripping the world today. Award-winning science and history writer Gail Jarrow tracks this disease, commonly known as pellagra, and highlights how doctors, scientists, and public health officials finally defeated it. Illustrated with 100 archival photographs, Red Madness includes stories about real-life pellagra victims and accounts of scientific investigations. It concludes with a glossary, timeline, further resources, author's note, bibliography, and index.A National Science Teachers Association, Best STEM Book

Meet Robert H. Jackson in an engaging biography, the first in fifty years. For four hours on November 21, 1945, the world watched and listened as Justice Robert H. Jackson, on leave from the U.S. Supreme Court, introduced the Allies' case against the high-ranking Nazi leadership at the Nuremberg Trial. For the first time, a country's leaders were being tried for war crimes, in large part owing to Jackson's efforts. Gail Jarrow's biography of Robert H. Jackson (1892–1954) details the personal journey of this extraordinary man from his childhood in rural New York; to President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal inner circle during the Great Depression; to the position of attorney general while the nation prepared for World War II; to the Supreme Court bench when it ruled on such significant cases as Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka; and to chief U.S. prosecutor at the Nuremberg Trial. Despite his remarkable accomplishments, Jackson never attended college or earned a law degree. Using primary sources—including Jackson's papers in the Library of Congress and materials from the Robert H. Jackson Center in Jamestown, New York—Jarrow tells the fascinating story of a lawyer and judge dedicated to the rule of law. A timeline, bibliography, source notes, additional resources, and index are included.

Sixteen-year-old Noah Daniels wants nothing more than to fight in George Washington's Continental Army, but an accident as a child left him maimed and unable to enlist. He is forced to watch the Revolution from his family's hard scrabble farm in Upstate New York—until a violent raid on his settlement thrusts him into one of the bloodiest battles of the American Revolution, and ultimately, face to face with the enemy. A riveting coming of age story, this book also includes an author's note and bibliography.

A 2019 Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor Book * A School Library Journal Best Book of the Year * A Booklist Editors' Choice * A Kirkus Reviews Best Children's Book * Booklist Top 10 Diverse Books for Middle Grade or Older Readers * A Chicago Public Library Best of the Best Books "(A) history that everyone should know: required and inspired." - Kirkus Reviews, starred reviewThis historical fiction picture book presents the story of nine-year-old Lorraine Jackson, who in 1968 witnessed the Memphis sanitation strike--Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s final stand for justice before his assassination--when her father, a sanitation worker, participated in the protest.In February 1968, two African American sanitation workers were killed by unsafe equipment in Memphis, Tennessee. Outraged at the city's refusal to recognize a labor union that would fight for higher pay and safer working conditions, sanitation workers went on strike. The strike lasted two months, during which Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was called to help with the protests. While his presence was greatly inspiring to the community, this unfortunately would be his last stand for justice. He was assassinated in his Memphis hotel the day after delivering his "I've Been to the Mountaintop" sermon in Mason Temple Church. Inspired by the memories of a teacher who participated in the strike as a child, author Alice Faye Duncan reveals the story of the Memphis sanitation strike from the perspective of a young girl with a riveting combination of poetry and prose.

Here is the story of how the Statue of Liberty got its pedestal when Joseph Pulitzer, a Jewish immigrant and famous newsman, created one of the first American crowdfunding campaigns to raise money for it.When Joseph Pulitzer first saw the Statue of Liberty's head in Paris, he shared sculptor Auguste Bartholdi's dream of seeing France's gift of friendship stand in the New York harbor. Pulitzer loved words, and the word he loved best was liberty. Frustrated that many, especially wealthy New Yorkers, were not interested in paying for the statue's needed pedestal, Pulitzer used his newspaper, the New York World, to call on all Americans to contribute. Claudia Friddell's text and Stacy Innerst's illustrations capture this inspiring story of how one immigrant brought together young and old, rich and poor, to raise funds for the completion of a treasured national monument.

In 1926, droves of Americans traveled by train across the United States to visit the West. They ate at Harvey Houses, where thousands of well-trained waitresses provided first-class service. The Waitresses: The Journal of a Harvey Girl tells the first-person story of one spunky girl, Kitty Evans, as she faces the often funny and painful experiences she and fellow waitresses Cordelia and Emmy endure. As Kitty writes about her escapades, a loveable teenager emerges; she embraces adventure, independence, her position as a Harvey Girl, and a freelance writing career. In this fast-paced novel, best-selling author Carolyn Meyer, who has visited and researched several Harvey Hotels, brings together an unforgettable heroine with the universal themes of friendship, identity, and young love.

Perfect to celebrate the new baseball season, here is the life and famous words, such as "it ain't over till it's over," of Major League Baseball player and New York Yankee Lawrence "Yogi" Berra.Yogi Berra loved his family, his neighborhood, his friends, and, most of all, baseball. He was crazy for it, ever since he was a young kid playing with friends in an abandoned dump. But baseball didn't love him back--at least not at first. Yogi was different. He didn't have the right look. When he finally made it to the major leagues, Yogi faced pranks and harassment from players, sportswriters, and fans. Their words hurt, but they made Yogi determined to show all that he could do. Author Barb Rosenstock's dynamic text and illustrator Terry Widener's powerful artwork reveal the talents, loves, and inspirational words of this celebrated New York Yankee and American icon, who earned a World Series ring for each finger and made baseball love him back.

Perfect for Women's History Month, here is the story of the extraordinary Alice Paul, a leader in the long struggle for votes for women.Alice Paul made a significant impact on both the woman's suffrage movement—the long struggle for votes for women—to the "second wave," when women demanded full equality with men. After women won the vote in 1920, Paul wrote the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), which would make all the laws that discriminated against women unconstitutional. Passage of the ERA became the rallying cry of a new movement of young women in the 1960s and '70s. Paul saw another chance to advance women's rights when the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 began moving through Congress. She set in motion the "sex amendment," which remains a crucial legal tool for helping women fight discrimination in the workplace. A true "girl power" book for today's young women, the title includes archival images, an author's note, a bibliography, and source notes.

Roger Tory Peterson revolutionized the way we look at and appreciate birds, animals, and plants. Some kids called him "Professor Nuts Peterson" because of his dedication to his craft; yet he went on to create the immensely popular Peterson Guides, which have sold more than seven million copies, and which birders everywhere appreciate for their simple text and exquisite illustrations. Working closely with the Roger Tory Peterson Institute in Jamestown, New York, author Peggy Thomas and artist Laura Jacques have created a fascinating portrait of a global environmentalist with this very first children's biography of Peterson, a winner of the John Burroughs Nature Books for Young Readers Award.

As soon as Thomas Jefferson learned to read, he found his passion: books, books, and more books! Before, during, and after the American Revolution, Jefferson collected thousands of books on hundreds of subjects. In fact, his massive collection eventually helped rebuild the Library of Congress—now the largest library in the world. Barb Rosenstock's rhythmic words and John O'Brien's whimsical illustrations capture Jefferson's passion for the written word as well as little-known details about book collecting. Author and artist worked closely with experts to create the first picture book on Jefferson's love of reading, writing, and books. An author's note, bibliography, and source notes for quotations are also included.

This picture book for older readers focuses on George Washington as farmer, inventor, and scientist. Infused with excerpts from George's letters and diaries, the narrative makes a convincing case for Washington's place as the nation's First Farmer. He invented a combination plow-tiller-harrow, tested different fertilizers, and bred donkeys and horses to create strong mules. His goal to make Mount Vernon self-sufficient carried over to his goal to make the new country independent. Layne Johnson's richly colored oil paintings portray the Colonial era with fine details. The book includes a timeline of Washington's life; shares his views on slavery, and includes a bibliography of additional reading materials and websites.

The story of the bus--and the passengers who changed history. Like all buses in Montgomery, Alabama, in the 1950s, bus #2857 was segregated: white passengers sat in the front and black passengers sat in the back. Bus #2857 was an ordinary public bus until a woman named Rosa Parks, who had just put in a long day as a seamstress, refused to give up her seat to a white passenger. Her arrest sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott, a major event in the Civil Rights moment, led by a young minister named Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. For 382 days, black passengers chose to walk rather than ride the buses in Montgomery. From the streets of Montgomery to its present home in the Henry Ford Museum, here is the remarkable story, a recipient of the Crystal Kite Award, of a bus and the passengers who changed history.