JUVENILE NONFICTION / Biography & Autobiography / Historical
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The House on the Canal: The Story of the House That Hid Anne Frank
Price: $19.99
Pub Date: January 7, 2025
Format: Hardcover
A house reveals the story of its inhabitants, including Anne Frank—and honors four centuries of history—in a moving and exquisitely illustrated picture book from the creators of The House by the Lake.
In the middle of Amsterdam is a house on a canal with a green door. Over four hundred years, it has quietly witnessed love, desperation, and historic change. Sometimes the narrow house was splendidly decorated, humming with life and love; other times, it stood empty, in near ruins. Sometimes the green door was open and inviting; other times, it was closed against cold and plague or to conceal the victims of wartime persecution. The house’s last occupant, a young girl with a sweet smile, would famously document her time there. In her diary, Anne Frank wrote of “the old house on the canal,” and today people come from far and wide to visit what stands as a universal symbol of hope and resilience. Thomas Harding’s lyrical text and concise back matter reveal history through the changing face and fortunes of a remarkable structure. Impeccably researched, Britta Teckentrup’s dreamy mixed-media collages, including a map and archival imagery, perfectly echo the layered narrative and capture the ethereal nature of time and circumstance.
BOX: Henry Brown Mails Himself to Freedom
Price: $8.99
Pub Date: September 20, 2022
Format: Paperback
“An artful and introspective retelling of the life of a remarkable man and a painful era in U.S. history. . . . A memorable work of nonfiction.” —School Library Journal (starred review)
What have I to fear?
My master broke every promise to me.
I lost my beloved wife and our dear children.
All sold South. Neither my time nor my body is mine.
The breath of life is all I have to lose.
And bondage is suffocating me.
Long before he came to be known as Box, Henry Brown wrote that he “entered the world a slave.” Since childhood he was treated as property; as an adult, his wife and children were spitefully sold deeper South—away from him. What more could be taken from him? But then hope came in the form of the Underground Railroad. In stanzas of six lines, each line representing one side of a box, celebrated poet Carole Boston Weatherford powerfully narrates Henry Brown’s story of how he came to deliver himself from slavery in a box. Strikingly illustrated in rich hues by artist Michele Wood, this 2021 Newbery Honor Book is augmented with historical records and an introductory excerpt from Henry’s own writing, as well as a time line, notes from the author and illustrator, and a bibliography.
A Rose Named Peace
How Francis Meilland Created a Flower of Hope for a World at War
Price: $18.99
Pub Date: May 17, 2022
Format: Hardcover
Beautifully illustrated by Bagram Ibatoulline, an inspirational biography of the Peace rose and its creator digs deep into world history, botany, and the rewards of perseverance.
From a young man’s experiments in cross-pollination to the rose that became an international symbol of hope, this gentle picture book biography, beautifully illustrated by Bagram Ibatoulline, is a quiet epic of war and peace. Francis Meilland was passionate about roses. He loved their rich perfume, their buds unfurling in the summer sun, and their petals, soft as lambs’ ears. Like his father and grandfather before him, Francis cultivated flowers on the family farm in France. In his teens, he set about grafting and experimenting, determined to create a rose no one had seen before, and as the world braced for World War II, he rushed cuttings to rose-growing friends around the globe. Six patient years later, word reached him: his rose had not only flourished; people were calling it the Peace Rose. An ideal gift for science and history buffs and for gardeners of all ages, this life story of a special flower is also a love song to living a dream from beginning to end, through sun and through storm.
Scribbles, Sorrows, and Russet Leather Boots: The Life of Louisa May Alcott
Price: $24.00
Pub Date: October 12, 2021
Format: Hardcover
Insightful, exciting, and deeply moving, Liz Rosenberg’s distinctive portrait of the author of Little Women reveals some of her life’s more complex and daring aspects.
Moody and restless, teenage Louisa longed for freedom. Faced with the expectations of her loving but hapless family, the Alcotts, and of nineteenth-century New England society, Louisa struggled to find her place. On long meandering runs through the woods behind Orchard House, she thought about a future where she could write and think and dream. Undaunted by periods of abject poverty and enriched by friendships with some of the greatest minds of her time and place, she was determined to have this future, no matter the cost.
Drawing on the surviving journals and letters of Louisa and her family and friends, author and poet Liz Rosenberg reunites Louisa May Alcott with her most ardent readers. In this warm and sometimes heartbreaking biography, Rosenberg delves deep into the oftentimes secretive life of a woman who was ahead of her time, imbued with social conscience, and always moving toward her future with a determination that would bring her fame, tragedy, and the realization of her biggest dreams.
A Ben of All Trades: The Most Inventive Boyhood of Benjamin Franklin
Price: $16.99
Pub Date: March 17, 2020
Format: Hardcover
A rousing biography from Michael J. Rosen and Matt Tavares reveals how Benjamin Franklin’s boyhood shaped his amazingly multifaceted life.
Young Benjamin Franklin wants to be a sailor, but his father won’t hear of it. The other trades he tries — candle maker, joiner, boot closer, turner — bore him through and through. Curious and inventive, Ben prefers to read, swim, fly his kite, and fly his kite while swimming. But each time he fails to find a profession, he takes some important bit of knowledge with him. That tendency is exactly what leads him to become the astonishingly versatile genius we remember today. Inspired by The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, Michael J. Rosen’s wry tale captures Ben’s spirit in evocative yet playful language, while illustrations by Matt Tavares follow Ben from the workbench to the water in vivid detail. A love story to the value of variety, A Ben of All Trades sheds light on an unconventional path to greatness and humanizes a towering figure in American history.
Voices from the Second World War
Stories of War as Told to Children of Today
Price: $17.99
Pub Date: October 8, 2019
Format: Paperback
“A comprehensive picture of the war, from soldiers, civilians, and children on all sides, both Allied and Axis. . . . A fine tool for any child interested in history.” — Kirkus Reviews
In an intergenerational volume, witnesses to World War II — RAF pilots, evacuees, resistance fighters, Land Girls, U.S. Navy sailors, and survivors of the Holocaust and the Hiroshima bombing — all tell their stories to young interviewers, passing on the lessons learned to a new generation. Featuring many vintage photographs, this moving volume also offers an index of contributors and a glossary.
A Green Place to Be: The Creation of Central Park
Price: $19.99
Pub Date: March 12, 2019
Format: Hardcover
How did Central Park become a vibrant gem in the heart of New York City? Follow the visionaries behind the plan as it springs to green life.
In 1858, New York City was growing so fast that new roads and tall buildings threatened to swallow up the remaining open space. The people needed a green place to be — a park with ponds to row on and paths for wandering through trees and over bridges. When a citywide contest solicited plans for creating a park out of barren swampland, Calvert Vaux and Frederick Law Olmsted put their heads together to create the winning design, and the hard work of making their plans a reality began. By winter, the lake opened for skating. By the next summer, the waterside woodland known as the Ramble opened for all to enjoy. Meanwhile, sculptors, stone masons, and master gardeners joined in to construct thirty-four unique bridges, along with fountains, pagodas, and band shells, making New York's Central Park a green gift to everyone. Included in the end matter are bios of Vaux and Olmsted, a bibliography, and engaging factual snippets.
The Boy Who Fell Off the Mayflower, or John Howland’s Good Fortune
Price: $9.99
Pub Date: October 2, 2018
Format: Paperback
“This feast of a book . . . will captivate readers from its opening double-page spread. . . . Sweeping and grand, this personal take on a familiar story is an engaging success.” — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
Leaving the docks of London on the Mayflower as an indentured servant to Pilgrim John Carver, John Howland little knew that he was embarking on the adventure of a lifetime. By his great good fortune, John survived falling overboard on the crossing of the Atlantic Ocean, and he earned his keep ashore by helping to scout a safe harbor and landing site for his bedraggled and ill shipmates. Would his luck continue to hold amid the dangers and adversity of the Pilgrims’ lives in New England? P.J. Lynch captures this pivotal moment in American history in precise and exquisite detail, from the light on the froth of a breaking wave to the questioning voice of a teen in a new world.
The Hero Schliemann
The Dreamer Who Dug for Troy
Price: $8.99
Pub Date: February 26, 2013
Format: Paperback
"Anyone with an interest in archaeology or in liars and braggarts will be drawn in by this slim biography of the hyper-imaginative Schliemann." — Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books (starred review)
From Newbery Medal-winning author Laura Amy Schlitz comes an engaging illustrated biography of Heinrich Schliemann, a nineteenth-century archaeologist who most believe did find the ancient city of Troy. This engrossing tale paints a portrait of contradictions — a man at once stingy and lavishly generous, a scholar both shrewd and reckless, a speaker of twenty-two languages and a man with a funny habit of taking liberties with the truth. Laura Amy Schlitz and Robert Byrd open a discussion about how history sometimes comes to be written, and how it sometimes needs to be changed.
Back matter includes source notes and a bibliography.

The House on the Canal: The Story of the House That Hid Anne Frank
Price: $19.99
Pub Date: January 7, 2025
Format: Hardcover
A house reveals the story of its inhabitants, including Anne Frank—and honors four centuries of history—in a moving and exquisitely illustrated picture book from the creators of The House by the Lake.
In the middle of Amsterdam is a house on a canal with a green door. Over four hundred years, it has quietly witnessed love, desperation, and historic change. Sometimes the narrow house was splendidly decorated, humming with life and love; other times, it stood empty, in near ruins. Sometimes the green door was open and inviting; other times, it was closed against cold and plague or to conceal the victims of wartime persecution. The house’s last occupant, a young girl with a sweet smile, would famously document her time there. In her diary, Anne Frank wrote of “the old house on the canal,” and today people come from far and wide to visit what stands as a universal symbol of hope and resilience. Thomas Harding’s lyrical text and concise back matter reveal history through the changing face and fortunes of a remarkable structure. Impeccably researched, Britta Teckentrup’s dreamy mixed-media collages, including a map and archival imagery, perfectly echo the layered narrative and capture the ethereal nature of time and circumstance.
BOX: Henry Brown Mails Himself to Freedom
Price: $8.99
Pub Date: September 20, 2022
Format: Paperback
“An artful and introspective retelling of the life of a remarkable man and a painful era in U.S. history. . . . A memorable work of nonfiction.” —School Library Journal (starred review)
What have I to fear?
My master broke every promise to me.
I lost my beloved wife and our dear children.
All sold South. Neither my time nor my body is mine.
The breath of life is all I have to lose.
And bondage is suffocating me.
Long before he came to be known as Box, Henry Brown wrote that he “entered the world a slave.” Since childhood he was treated as property; as an adult, his wife and children were spitefully sold deeper South—away from him. What more could be taken from him? But then hope came in the form of the Underground Railroad. In stanzas of six lines, each line representing one side of a box, celebrated poet Carole Boston Weatherford powerfully narrates Henry Brown’s story of how he came to deliver himself from slavery in a box. Strikingly illustrated in rich hues by artist Michele Wood, this 2021 Newbery Honor Book is augmented with historical records and an introductory excerpt from Henry’s own writing, as well as a time line, notes from the author and illustrator, and a bibliography.
A Rose Named Peace
How Francis Meilland Created a Flower of Hope for a World at War
Price: $18.99
Pub Date: May 17, 2022
Format: Hardcover
Beautifully illustrated by Bagram Ibatoulline, an inspirational biography of the Peace rose and its creator digs deep into world history, botany, and the rewards of perseverance.
From a young man’s experiments in cross-pollination to the rose that became an international symbol of hope, this gentle picture book biography, beautifully illustrated by Bagram Ibatoulline, is a quiet epic of war and peace. Francis Meilland was passionate about roses. He loved their rich perfume, their buds unfurling in the summer sun, and their petals, soft as lambs’ ears. Like his father and grandfather before him, Francis cultivated flowers on the family farm in France. In his teens, he set about grafting and experimenting, determined to create a rose no one had seen before, and as the world braced for World War II, he rushed cuttings to rose-growing friends around the globe. Six patient years later, word reached him: his rose had not only flourished; people were calling it the Peace Rose. An ideal gift for science and history buffs and for gardeners of all ages, this life story of a special flower is also a love song to living a dream from beginning to end, through sun and through storm.
Scribbles, Sorrows, and Russet Leather Boots: The Life of Louisa May Alcott
Price: $24.00
Pub Date: October 12, 2021
Format: Hardcover
Insightful, exciting, and deeply moving, Liz Rosenberg’s distinctive portrait of the author of Little Women reveals some of her life’s more complex and daring aspects.
Moody and restless, teenage Louisa longed for freedom. Faced with the expectations of her loving but hapless family, the Alcotts, and of nineteenth-century New England society, Louisa struggled to find her place. On long meandering runs through the woods behind Orchard House, she thought about a future where she could write and think and dream. Undaunted by periods of abject poverty and enriched by friendships with some of the greatest minds of her time and place, she was determined to have this future, no matter the cost.
Drawing on the surviving journals and letters of Louisa and her family and friends, author and poet Liz Rosenberg reunites Louisa May Alcott with her most ardent readers. In this warm and sometimes heartbreaking biography, Rosenberg delves deep into the oftentimes secretive life of a woman who was ahead of her time, imbued with social conscience, and always moving toward her future with a determination that would bring her fame, tragedy, and the realization of her biggest dreams.
A Ben of All Trades: The Most Inventive Boyhood of Benjamin Franklin
Price: $16.99
Pub Date: March 17, 2020
Format: Hardcover
A rousing biography from Michael J. Rosen and Matt Tavares reveals how Benjamin Franklin’s boyhood shaped his amazingly multifaceted life.
Young Benjamin Franklin wants to be a sailor, but his father won’t hear of it. The other trades he tries — candle maker, joiner, boot closer, turner — bore him through and through. Curious and inventive, Ben prefers to read, swim, fly his kite, and fly his kite while swimming. But each time he fails to find a profession, he takes some important bit of knowledge with him. That tendency is exactly what leads him to become the astonishingly versatile genius we remember today. Inspired by The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, Michael J. Rosen’s wry tale captures Ben’s spirit in evocative yet playful language, while illustrations by Matt Tavares follow Ben from the workbench to the water in vivid detail. A love story to the value of variety, A Ben of All Trades sheds light on an unconventional path to greatness and humanizes a towering figure in American history.
Voices from the Second World War
Stories of War as Told to Children of Today
Price: $17.99
Pub Date: October 8, 2019
Format: Paperback
“A comprehensive picture of the war, from soldiers, civilians, and children on all sides, both Allied and Axis. . . . A fine tool for any child interested in history.” — Kirkus Reviews
In an intergenerational volume, witnesses to World War II — RAF pilots, evacuees, resistance fighters, Land Girls, U.S. Navy sailors, and survivors of the Holocaust and the Hiroshima bombing — all tell their stories to young interviewers, passing on the lessons learned to a new generation. Featuring many vintage photographs, this moving volume also offers an index of contributors and a glossary.
A Green Place to Be: The Creation of Central Park
Price: $19.99
Pub Date: March 12, 2019
Format: Hardcover
How did Central Park become a vibrant gem in the heart of New York City? Follow the visionaries behind the plan as it springs to green life.
In 1858, New York City was growing so fast that new roads and tall buildings threatened to swallow up the remaining open space. The people needed a green place to be — a park with ponds to row on and paths for wandering through trees and over bridges. When a citywide contest solicited plans for creating a park out of barren swampland, Calvert Vaux and Frederick Law Olmsted put their heads together to create the winning design, and the hard work of making their plans a reality began. By winter, the lake opened for skating. By the next summer, the waterside woodland known as the Ramble opened for all to enjoy. Meanwhile, sculptors, stone masons, and master gardeners joined in to construct thirty-four unique bridges, along with fountains, pagodas, and band shells, making New York's Central Park a green gift to everyone. Included in the end matter are bios of Vaux and Olmsted, a bibliography, and engaging factual snippets.
The Boy Who Fell Off the Mayflower, or John Howland’s Good Fortune
Price: $9.99
Pub Date: October 2, 2018
Format: Paperback
“This feast of a book . . . will captivate readers from its opening double-page spread. . . . Sweeping and grand, this personal take on a familiar story is an engaging success.” — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
Leaving the docks of London on the Mayflower as an indentured servant to Pilgrim John Carver, John Howland little knew that he was embarking on the adventure of a lifetime. By his great good fortune, John survived falling overboard on the crossing of the Atlantic Ocean, and he earned his keep ashore by helping to scout a safe harbor and landing site for his bedraggled and ill shipmates. Would his luck continue to hold amid the dangers and adversity of the Pilgrims’ lives in New England? P.J. Lynch captures this pivotal moment in American history in precise and exquisite detail, from the light on the froth of a breaking wave to the questioning voice of a teen in a new world.
The Hero Schliemann
The Dreamer Who Dug for Troy
Price: $8.99
Pub Date: February 26, 2013
Format: Paperback
"Anyone with an interest in archaeology or in liars and braggarts will be drawn in by this slim biography of the hyper-imaginative Schliemann." — Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books (starred review)
From Newbery Medal-winning author Laura Amy Schlitz comes an engaging illustrated biography of Heinrich Schliemann, a nineteenth-century archaeologist who most believe did find the ancient city of Troy. This engrossing tale paints a portrait of contradictions — a man at once stingy and lavishly generous, a scholar both shrewd and reckless, a speaker of twenty-two languages and a man with a funny habit of taking liberties with the truth. Laura Amy Schlitz and Robert Byrd open a discussion about how history sometimes comes to be written, and how it sometimes needs to be changed.
Back matter includes source notes and a bibliography.