Biography – Autobiography- Memoir

Dancing to Freedom: The True Story of Mao’s Last Dancer

In a poor village in northern China, a small boy named Li Cunxin was given the chance of a lifetime. Selected by Chairman Mao’s officials from among millions of children to become a dancer, Li’s new life began as he left his family behind.

At the Beijing Dance Academy, days were long and difficult. Li’s hard work was rewarded when he was chosen yet again, this time to travel to America.

From there his career took flight, and he danced in cities around the world—never forgetting his family, who urged him to follow his dreams.

Brave Deeds: How One Family Saved Many People from the Nazis

When Holland was under Nazi rule, the Dutch lived extremely harsh lives. Thousands were in hiding, especially Jews who had managed to escape transport to the death camps. Frans Braal and his wife Mies took in anyone in need of help — Jews, children whose parents could no longer look after them, resistance fighters, and people who were starving — providing them with a temporary home. Twice their place was searched by the Nazis, and on both occasions they managed to hide everyone in time. Told through the eyes of a child, this is the story of the Braals, two people who willingly put themselves in great danger in order to save the lives of those less fortunate. Throughout, sidebars provide further information about Dutch resistance workers and traitors, Dutch Jews, bombing missions, false identity cards, the war, and more.

Afghan Dreams: Young Voices of Afghanistan

This story introduces readers to children living in Kabul and in rural Afghan villages through photographic portraits and brief narrative profiles that offer a glimpse of their lives and dreams.

Keep Your Eye On the Kid: The Early Years Of Buster Keaton

FAMOUS AT FOUR! Four-year-old Buster Keaton became one of the best-known comedians of his age and inches when his father threw him across a vaudeville stage, shouting “Keep your eye on the kid!” The crowd roared as he easily landed on his feet and instantly became a star.  As Buster grew, he set his sights on the budding world of Hollywood and went on to become one of America’s most beloved silent-film stars. Airy detailed illustrations evoke small-town USA in the early 20th century. Told in Buster’s voice, this captivating biography introduces young readers to a boy who became an American icon and changed the face of comedy and the film world forever.

Coping With Love (Coping)

A young person’s wartime account in the tradition of The Diary of Anne Frank follows the experiences of thirteen-year-old Russian Tatjana, who is taken to Germany as a captive laborer after Nazi Germany declares war on her country.”

Diego: Bigger Than Life

Diego Rivera’s energy, physique, love for women, and work were all “bigger than life.” Born in a small Mexican mining town in 1886,he drew his way through childhood, entered art school at ageten, and later traveled throughout Europe, studying the great masters andimitating their techniques. When he returned to Mexico in 1921, he foundhis own unique style. He began painting the poetry of the common people –working, suffering, fighting, seeking joy, living, and dying — on thewalls of public buildings. His murals were passionate, controversial, political,and enormous — like the painter himself.

Anne Frank: Life In Hiding

From July 1942 until August 1944, a young Jewish teenager living in Holland kept a diary. Published for all the world to read many years after Anne herself died in a concentration camp, it chronicled the two years she and her family spent hiding from the Nazis. Here is a sensitive and thoughtful biography about one of the best-known victims of the Holocaust.

Pele, King of Soccer/Pele, El Rey Del Futbol

This book tells how a poor boy from Brazil who loved fútbol more than anything else became the biggest soccer star the world has ever known.

 

Four Perfect Pebbles: A Holocaust Story

By the time WWII ended in Europe, the Blumenthal family–Marion, her brother Albert, and their parents–had lived in a succession of refugee, transit, and prison camps for more than six years, not only surviving but staying together. This memoir is written in spare, powerful prose that vividly depicts the endless degradation and humiliation suffered by the Holocaust’s innocent victims, as well as the unending horror of life in the camps.

Mao’s Last Dancer

Chosen from millions of children to serve in Mao’s cultural revolution by studying at the Beijing Dance Academy, Li knows ballet would be his family’s best opportunity to escape the poverty in his rural China home. From one hardship to another, Li perseveres, never forgetting the family he left behind.