Books with title Sterling Biographies

She just wouldn't get up - and with that simple, courageous act Rosa Parks struck a blow against injustice. Parks showed what one person, without guns or violence, could do to change the course of history forever. Nelson Mandela claimed "she is who inspired us...to be fearless when facing our oppressors." As a volunteer secretary for the NAACP, Parks chronicled racial injustices and fought for desegregation. Then, on December 1, 1955, she made a stand on a Montgomery, Alabama bus: she refused to relinquish her seat for a white man. Her arrest mobilized the black community for a citywide bus boycott that led to a landmark Supreme Court decision. Award-winning author Ruth Ashby beautifully conveys Park's dignity and determination.

With his seemingly impossible escapes and incredible feats of illusion, Harry Houdini lived a life so fantastic that it seems almost too amazing even for fiction. Beyond his on-stage magic, Houdini also made his mark as an airplane pioneer, movie star, and debunker of frauds. His renown extended from his childhood home in Appleton, Wisconsin to Europe to Sydney, Australia. Children will thrill as they read about his seemingly superhuman successes - including when Houdini, hanging by his ankles and wrapped in a straightjacket, managed to free himself in less than three minutes. The biography also delves into Houdini's impoverished childhood, his close relationship with his family, his start in show business - and how he managed some of his famous tricks.

What do libraries, streetlights, and fire stations have in common? What about bifocal lenses and the odometer? Sayings like "haste makes waste?" Benjamin Franklin was a man of many talents: a scientist who experimented with electricity; a diplomat who served as envoy to France and negotiated peace with England; a mapmaker, printer, and writer famous for his Poor Richard's Almanack. He signed both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, and established America's first hospital. The list of his accomplishments is astonishing and wide ranging. When he lived, his work touched the lives of every person in the new United States of America; some 300 years later, he continues to fascinate, amaze, and inspire today's young readers.

One of the great thinkers of all time, Thomas Jefferson helped shape America in its early years, and his ideas continue to inspire us today. His amazing contributions include not only writing the Declaration of Independence, but his actions as the United States’ third President, as well as his influence as a scientist, inventor, farming pioneer, and educator. The engrossing life of this founding father is fully captured in this richly detailed biography, from Jefferson’s childhood in a simple wooden farmhouse in Virginia through his careers in law, diplomacy, and politics, in addition to his marriage to his beloved Martha and the family tragedies they endured.

Marian Anderson's majestic voice mesmerized the nation - but her courage in confronting racism was even more inspirational. She became the first African-American to record spirituals for a major recording company, and the first to appear on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera House.Victoria Garrett Jones tells her remarkable story, from Philadelphia's poorest neighborhood to the world's finest concert stages.

The names of these history-makers may be familiar, but do young readers have a sense of who these people were and what made them tick? They will after reading these biographies, which make history engaging and accessible by bringing readers into the lives of people who shaped it. Providing the facts kids need to know about the people they're studying, these books are perfect for first reports, and by breathing life into the important figures from the past, they will inspire budding historians.