Poetry that makes us appreciate the magnitude of lives
filled with courage, enthusiasm, inspiration.

Lives: Poems About Famous Americans is the ideal introduction to sixteen American personalities who have changed the course of history. Favorite anthologist Lee Bennett Hopkins has brought together the work of a number of accomplished writers and poets, among them Jane Yolen, Nikki Grimes, and X. J. Kennedy, to portray such figures as Sacagawea, Babe Ruth, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, and Martin Luther King, Jr. Leslie Staubs portraits contain a poetry of their own, capturing a bit of history in the glint of smile or the reach of a hand. Lives is a book for all readers to savor.

Notable Children's Trade Books in the Field of Social Studies 2000, National Council for SS & Child. Book Council

When we think about the European past, we tend to imagine villages, towns, and cities populated by conventional families—married couples and their children. Although most people did marry and pass many of their adult years in the company of a spouse, this vision of a preindustrial Europe shaped by heterosexual marriage deceptively hides the well-established fact that, in some times and places, as many as twenty-five percent of women and men remained single throughout their lives.

Despite the significant number of never-married lay women in medieval and early modern Europe, the study of their role and position in that society has been largely neglected. Singlewomen in the European Past opens up this group for further investigation. It is not only the first book to highlight the important minority of women who never married but also the first to address the critical matter of differences among women from the perspective of marital status.

Essays by leading scholars—among them Maryanne Kowaleski, Margaret Hunt, Ruth Mazo Karras, Susan Mosher Stuard, Roberta Krueger, and Merry Wiesner—deal with topics including the sexual and emotional relationships of singlewomen, the economic issues and employment opportunities facing them, the differences between the lives of widows and singlewomen, the conflation of singlewomen and prostitutes, and the problem of female slavery. The chapters both illustrate the roles open to the singlewoman in the thirteenth through eighteenth centuries and raise new perspectives about the experiences of singlewomen in earlier times.

'We all need a hero or two to help us stand fast and think right,' says William J. Bennett, author of The Book of Virtues, the #1 bestseller that millions of American families turn to for moral inspiration. With excerpts chosen for young children, this new treasury presents splendid tales of the valor and indomitable spirit that are a lasting testament to our cherished values.

Jackie Robinson stands fast on the playing field -- and his strength of character inspires a nation. David slays Goliath -- and his faith and bravery give hope to underdogs everywhere. A little boy goes in search of an angel -- and finds one who guards him day and night: his own mother. From Abraham Lincoln and Mother Teresa to warriors on the battlefield, real moms and dads, and even young girls and boys, here are worthy and heroic figures all kids can look up to and emulate.

The Children's Book of Heroes is a celebration of the endurance, sacrifice, courage, and compassion that characterize truly heroic deeds.