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.
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.
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.
A female pharaoh? A woman general in the Kahn’s army? A female Viking raider? No way, you say? Look again. Appearances can be deceiving… Based on legends, poems, letters and first-hand accounts, these seven biographical tales tell of women who disguised themselves as men. From ancient Egypt through the Middle Ages to the 19th century, this historically accurate graphic treatment is perfect to transport readers back to bygone eras. The lives of these daring women were often filled with danger and the fear of discovery. However, for the sake of freedom, ambition, love or adventure, these women risked everything. No Girls Allowed brings a contemporary edge to a part of history largely untold – until now.
A teenage girl recounts the suffering and persecution of her family under the Nazis–in a Polish ghetto, through deportation, and in concentration camps.
A biography of Socrates, a philosopher and teacher in ancient Greece who held that wisdom comes from questioning ideas and values rather than simply accepting what is passed on by parents and teachers.
The story of revolution leader Toussaint L’Ouverture of St. Domingue (now Haiti).The island now known as Haiti was once a French colony called St. Domingue, where white plantation owners forced hundreds of thousands of African slaves to farm sugar cane. Toussaint L’Ouverture was one of those slaves . . . but not for long. The day would come when L’Ouverture would lead his island’s slaves into a revolution for freedom, and his efforts would influence the course of world history.
As a child, Jane Goodall dreamed of living with the wild animals of Africa. As a young woman, she amazed the world with her groundbreaking discoveries about chimpanzees, which she documented in her acclaimed National Geographic television specials. Ever since, Dr. Goodall has campaigned unceasingly for the protection of the chimpanzee, now an endangered species.
At just 15, her mother, and brother were taken from their Romanian town to the Auschwitz-II/Birkenau concentration camp. When they arrived at Auschwitz, a soldier waved Elly to the right; her mother and brother to the left. She never saw her family alive again. Thanks to a series of miracles, Elly survived the Holocaust. Today she is dedicated to keeping alive the stories of those who did not. Elly appeared on CBS’s 60 Minutes for her involvement in bringing an important lawsuit against Volkswagen, whose German factory used her and other Jews as slave laborers.
A former member of the underground Dutch resistance force against the Nazis recounts her two years of covert meetings, perilous deliveries, near-confrontations, and life sentencing while she was still a teenager.