Nonfiction Plays

60 songs to make your little one smile and laugh, wiggle and giggle! Sing and dance with this new collection of 60 all-time favorite songs!

This dramatic retelling of the gospel illuminates the unique role we can play in the amazing story God is telling. Sure, good things happen, sometimes beautiful things. But tragic things happen too. What does it mean? We find ourselves in the middle of a story that is sometimes wonderful...

How to end homelessness in America: a must-read guide to understanding housing instability, supporting our unhoused neighbors, and reclaiming our humanity. A deeply humanizing analysis that will change the way you think about poverty and homelessness—for the socially engaged reader of Isabel...

“There are at least two kinds of games,” states James P. Carse as he begins this extraordinary book. “One could be called finite; the other infinite. A finite game is played for the purpose of winning, an infinite game for the purpose of continuing the play.” Finite games are the...

Discover the Wild Side of Frontier Childhood! Pintsized Pioneers at Play: Homemade Frontier Fun and Danger explores the forgotten world of how kids lived, laughed—and sometimes limped—through their childhood years in the Old West. While their parents settled the land, these pintsized pioneers explored it, creating their own adventures with homemade toys, daring games, wild animal encounters, and risky escapades. This engaging sequel to the award-winning Pintsized Pioneers: Taming the Frontier, One Chore at a Time shines a spotlight on the joys and perils of play in a land still being ...

“So often people ask me if there’s a book on story I can recommend. This is the one. I can’t recommend it highly enough.”––Alexa Junge, writer/producer, Friends, Sex and the City, The West Wing A master class of 27 lessons, drawn from 27 diverse narratives, for novelists...

Get ready to play and sing along to this fun-filled song/audiobook combo. “Let’s Play Musical Chairs” combines music with a fun birthday party game. Upbeat lyrics and a catchy melody makes “Let’s Play Musical Chairs” a party and classroom favorite!

Description to come...

A wealthy Elizabethan merchant is found dead in his bed. A young bride stands accused. What begins as a murder investigation becomes one of Tudor England’s most haunting historical true crime stories. The Page of Plymouth Plymouth, England. February 1591. Master William Page is one of the richest and most powerful merchants in Devon, a respected goldsmith, international trader, and financier of England’s legendary privateering voyages. When he is discovered lifeless in his bed, his passing seems the result of a common illness known simply as “the stone.” Then investigators pull back...

The winning goal came in the 106th minute. The system behind it took years to build. A championship is often remembered through one player, one goal, and one unforgettable celebration. But what had to be true before the ball reached Ferran Torres at the decisive moment? The 106th Minute tells the story of how Spain transformed extraordinary talent into a coordinated system capable of surviving the most demanding tournament in international soccer. Beginning with a frustrating opening draw and ending with an extra-time victory over Argentina, the book traces the hidden structure behind the ...

What is golf, and how do you play? Learn all about it!

What do the toys we give children actually teach them? More than we think. And more deliberately than most of us are comfortable admitting. Playthings: A History of Toys traces the four-thousand-year story of the objects we put in children's hands — from a clay ox found in the ruins of the Indus Valley to the AI-powered companions that listen to children's conversations and transmit them to cloud servers. Along the way, it uncovers a history that is surprising, sometimes disturbing, and impossible to look away from. Toys have always reflected the societies that made them. The toy soldiers...

On October 15, 2020, three weeks before the election, the US Senate Judiciary Committee met for the fourth day of the hearing considering the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett for associate justice of the US Supreme Court for the purpose of filling the seat left vacant by the recently deceased liberal icon Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Republicans were exploiting their majority to push through the fast-tracked appointment before the November 3 election. Democrats were opposing the nomination that would flip the Supreme Court position on many issues, which the Republicans could not enact through the ...

They watched the 1996 movie Scream over and over again. One of the boys was truly infatuated with the movie and wanted to be part of it. He along with two friends, lured two teenage girls to a local park in Salem, New Hampshire late one night where the girls were brutally murdered by being stabbed over and over again. Read how they were tracked to Michigan from New Hampshire and how they were brought to justice.

Are you curious about trains? Who drives the train? How long can a train be? What are all the cars used for? Learn all about Trains—then and now with Smithsonian: Trains.

How to play chess for kids of all ages! When you listen to How to Play Chess for Children, you'll discover a wonderful world of challenge and adventure! This easy-to-follow guide provides a complete overview of the game of chess. It's a perfect introduction to the game.

An enthralling play based on lost tapes between two cultural giants and friends—Andy Warhol and Truman Capote. In 1978 Andy Warhol and Truman Capote decided to write a Broadway play. Andy suggested that he record their private conversations over the period of a few months, and that these tapes...

Slime. Ice cream. Crayons. Kids come across these things and more in everyday life. Bring familiar and favorite nouns to young learners, and watch their vocabularies grow!

Are you curious about birds? How many species of birds live in our world? Do birds talk to one another? Why do some birds have colorful feathers? Birds, Feathers, Eggs and Beaks explains birds to little ones.

Are you curious about sharks? How many different types of sharks are there? What was the largest shark that ever lived? What is a baby shark called? Learn more with Smithsonian: Sharks.