Books in Close-ups series

Read Kerry Madden's posts on the Penguin Blog.Nelle Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird was published in 1960 and became an instant bestseller. Two years later it was an Academy Award– winning film. Today, it remains standard—and beloved—reading in English classes. But Lee never wanted “the book” to define who she was, which explains her aversion to any kind of publicity. Kerry Madden conducted extensive research for this Up Close biography, which reveals Lee to be a down-to-earth Southern woman who prefers to live simply, like her neighbors do, despite the fact that she is a treasured literary legend. Madden’s in-depth biography is now more relevant than ever: 2015’s historic release of Go Set a Watchman—written by Lee before To Kill a Mockingbird and lost for decades—has thrust Lee and her work back into the spotlight.A Booklist Top Ten Biography of 2009 A Kirkus Best Book of 2009

Discover your amazing world through curious and fascinating up-close photography!Transform the ordinary into something extraordinary with exciting micro and macro photography! Fur & Feathers explores the fascinating textures of birds and animals, pairing extreme, hyper-detailed images of unique and colorful feathers and patterned fur coats with fun facts, activities, and brainteasers. So let's turn up the ZOOM and discover a whole new way of seeing the world.

Thurgood Marshall changed American history by challenging it. In the first half of the twentieth century, African Americans were often treated as second-class citizens and subject to Jim Crow laws, which promoted both racism and segregation. This is the world that Marshall grew up in, and he became a lawyer to change it. As the head counsel for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), he helped take the famous Brown v. Board of Education all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. And in an outcome surprising even to him, the court unanimously ruled to end segregation in schools. Thurgood Marshall had become a hero.

Discover your amazing world through curious and fascinating up-close photography!Transform the ordinary into something extraordinary with exciting micro and macro photography! Reptiles & Amphibiansexplores all things cold-blooded, pairing extreme, hyper-detailed images of scaly skin, snake eyes, and webbed feet with fun facts, activities, and brainteasers. So let’s turn up the ZOOM and discover a whole new way of seeing the world.

Babe Ruth is still regarded as perhaps the greatest baseball player ever to step on a diamond. Born into a poor family in Baltimore, George Herman Ruth Jr. was sent to a Catholic reform school at age seven, where he learned how to play baseball. Initially a talented southpaw, the Babe went on to shatter every home-run record on the books?and when fewer games were played in a season and a heavier ball was used. In this engaging and fast-paced biography, award-winning author Wilborn Hampton shares with readers The Babe was also a man of big heart, temper, and appetite.

?Elvis left no one indifferent to rock and roll??so begins award-winning author Wilborn Hampton?s thoughtful account of the beloved and controversial Elvis Presley. When Elvis shook his hips and sang his soulful songs, teenagers screamed and parents fretted. Fans, record executives, movie producers, and even the army wanted a piece of this enigmatic performer and shy boy from Tupelo, Mississippi. What Elvis gave them changed music forever. This latest addition to Viking?s ongoing biography series, Up Close, includes gorgeous black-and-white photographs and introduces readers to the complicated life of the king of rock and roll.

Up Close: Jane Goodall by Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen Up Close: Thurgood Marshall by Chris Crowe A trailblazing scientist made famous by her favorite primates. Jane Goodall will forever be linked with the chimpanzees that she?s studied for over fifty years. A pioneer in scientific research, she revolutionized longstanding views about chimps, forest conservation, and women in scientific fields. This Up Close biography tells the story of how a demure young woman from London went to Africa and changed the world.

Discover your amazing world through curious and fascinating up-close photography!Transform the ordinary into something extraordinary with exciting micro and macro photography! Bugs & Butterfliesexplores all things creepy and crawly, pairing extreme, hyper-detailed images of butterfly wings, honeybee eyes, and spider legs with fun facts, activities, and brainteasers. So let’s turn up the ZOOM and discover a whole new way of seeing the world.

Bill Gates is many things: the richest person in the world; the ruthless businessman who co-founded Microsoft and led it to domination of the computer software industry; and now, the leading global philanthropist. When Gates was born in 1955, no one in the world owned a personal computer. A window had a pane of glass. A mouse was a rodent. As a teenager, Gates realized how computers were about to change the world, and made his fortune by riding that wave; modern teens look to him as their model of how technology can be turned into wealth. Marc Aronson’s biography is a probing portrait of a man whose name is a household word.

The name ?Ella Fitzgerald? brings to mind a silky voice crooning jazz standards. The First Lady of Song earned her nickname by touring almost nonstop for over fifty years, winning thirteen Grammys, and recording album after album. But who was the woman behind the name? How did a teenage runaway become a renowned jazz singer? Long after her homeless days, Ella remained insecure?she often suffered stage fright. Yet she was a born performer, able to improvise lyrics and record songs in single takes. She even seemed more comfortable on stage than off, and close friends found her hard to truly know. Tanya Lee Stone?s Up Close biography delivers several never-before-published details of this intensely private, legendary singer?s life.