Literary

Raised in South Carolina and New York, Woodson always felt halfway home in each place. In vivid poems, she shares what it was like to grow up as an African American in the 1960s and 1970s....

Where did Roald Dahl get all of his wonderful ideas for stories? From his own life, of course! As full of excitement and the unexpected as his world-famous, best-selling books, Roald Dahl's tales of his own childhood are completely fascinating and fiendishly funny....

A middle grade memoir from a living literary legend, giving listeners a new perspective on the origins of Gary Paulsen's famed survival stories....

From the big woods of Wisconsin to the Indian country of the Great Plains, new adventures and landscapes filled the rich childhood of Laura Ingalls Wilder. On a frontier steeped in both danger and great possibility, Laura would grow up to witness firsthand the rapid transformation of the West....

Superb stories, daring deeds, fantastic adventures! Going Solo is the action-packed tale of Roald Dahl's exploits as a World War II pilot. Learn all about his encounters with the enemy, his worldwide travels, the life-threatening injuries he sustained in a plane accident....

In 1995, on a four-hour-delayed train from Manchester to London, J. K. Rowling conceived of the idea of a boy wizard named Harry Potter....

Mercy Otis Warren was a brave and brilliant woman. She used her writing prowess to fight in the US revolutionary period. This biography book is dedicated to the life and times of Mercy Otis Warren....

Newbery medalist Jerry Spinelli has penned his early autobiography with all the warmth, humor, and drama of his bestselling fiction....

Legendary picture book creator Barbara Cooney once noticed that the library in her little town by the sea needed attention. A library, she knew, should be a kind of paradise. And because Barbara did whatever she set her mind to, she made it one.

Ted Geisel loved to doodle from the time he was a kid. He had an offbeat, fun-loving personality. He often threw dinner parties where guests wore outrageous hats! And he donned quirky hats when thinking up ideas for books-like his classic The Cat in the Hat....

How did Jon Scieszka get so funny, anyway? Growing up as one of six brothers was a good start, but that was just the beginning. Throw in Catholic school, lazy summers at the lake, babysitting misadventures, TV shows, jokes told at family dinner, and the result is Knucklehead....

When Charles Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol in 1843, he likely had no idea that the story and its main character, Ebenezer Scrooge, would remain so popular nearly two centuries later....

This glorious biography of Maya Angelou’s life - from her traumatic childhood through her work as a freedom fighter and her triumphant rise as a poet - is a powerful tribute to a phenomenal woman....

Catherine Reef has crafted a compelling biography that is an accessible introduction to the work of one of our most revered - and sometimes reviled - American icons....

This fast-paced, high-energy collection of short works features today's most popular writers and illustrators on what it means to be a guy. Contributors include Chris Crutcher, Stephen King, Matt Groening, Daniel Pinkwater, Neil Gaiman, and many more....

Dramatic, lyrical, and beautiful, O Captain, My Captain tells the story of one of America’s greatest poets and how he was inspired by one of America’s greatest presidents....

A humorist, narrator, and social observer, Mark Twain is unsurpassed in American literature. Best known as the author of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain, not unlike his protagonist, Huck, has a restless spirit....

Look for heroes, far and near. Give your gifts to the world. Have compassion for all creatures. These are just a few of the lessons that Magic Tree House fans will learn on their magical journey through this book....

Well-loved author Tomie dePaola brings his childhood memories to audio in this collection of books 5-8 from his 26 FAIRMOUNT AVENUE series.

Well-loved author Tomie dePaola brings his childhood memories to audio in this collection of the first four books from his 26 FAIRMOUNT AVENUE series.

Journey to Avonlea and meet Anne Shirley—the imaginative and bold star of the beloved Anne of Green Gables series—in this addition to the What Is the Story Of? series....

Best known for his best-selling novel, Babe, which was made into a major motion picture, Dick King-Smith draws on his over 14 years of experience on Woodlands Farm to create this thoughtful and humorous memoir....

Walt Whitman is celebrated as an iconic American poet, but few know of the crucial and heroic role he played tending to the wounded and dying in Civil War hospitals. This nonfiction book highlights Whitman’s compassion and teaches an important lesson about empathy.

First-grader Tomie dePaola experiences uncertainty in the weeks following the attack on pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941. What are the grown-ups talking quietly about at home and even at school? Why does his class have to go to the spooky furnace room for an air raid drill?

Acclaimed novelist Ibi Zoboi illuminates the young life of the visionary storyteller Octavia E. Butler in poems and prose. Born into the Space Race, the Red Scare, and the dawning Civil Rights Movement, Butler experienced an American childhood....