alabama

A biography of civil rights activist and icon Rosa Parks.

"Lonnie Johnson was discouraged from becoming a scientist in school, but eventually became an engineer. Learn how Johnson overcame many challenges to become a brilliant engineer and inventor of one of the world's most popular toys, the Super Soaker"--Provided by publisher.

In 1930s Alabama, twelve-year-old Hoodoo Hatcher is the only member of his family who seems unable to practice folk magic, but when a mysterious man called the Stranger puts the entire town at risk from his black magic, Hoodoo must learn to conjure to defeat him.

Evelyn Couch, a woman caught in the slump of middle age, gains a new outlook on life when she befriends eighty-year-old Ninny Threadgoode who tells her the story of the Whistle Stop Cafe and the two women who ran it in the 1930s, best friends Idgie and Ruth.

"Conflicted about leaving Germany, Max is in awe of his new "home" - here, the heat is thick, the food is grossly delicious, and football and religion-seemingly intertwined-permeate everything. While his parents don't know what to make of an American South pining for the "good ol' days," or the people who live there, shy Max thrives-he makes the football team, goes to church for the first time, and even makes friends. When Max meets Pan in Chemistry class, they embark on a quixotic, strange, and consuming relationship. They tell each other their secrets; Max tells Pan about his witchy powers, Pan tells Max about the snake poison initiations of a local church. But the boys aren't sure whose secrets are darker, or what is more frightening -their true selves, or staying true in an intolerant Alabama"--Provided by publisher.

Describes how Joe Namath and Bear Bryant led the Crimson Tide to an Orange Bowl championship in 1965, amidst bloody fights in the civil rights movement and a pair of ethics candals, to change football's culture and economics.

"Reverend Willie Maxwell was a rural preacher accused of murdering five of his family members for insurance money in the 1970s. With the help of a savvy lawyer, he escaped justice for years until a relative shot him dead at the funeral of his last victim. Despite hundreds of witnesses, Maxwell's murderer was acquitted--thanks to the same attorney who had previously defended the Reverend"--Back cover.

"In 1927, Zora Neale Hurston went to Plateau, Alabama, just outside Mobile, to interview eighty-six-year-old Cudjo Lewis. Of the millions of men, women, and children transported from Africa to America as slaves, Cudjo was then the only person alive to tell the story of this integral part of the nation's history. Hurston was there to record Cudjo's firsthand account of the raid that led to his capture and bondage fifty years after the Atlantic slave trade was outlawed in the United States. In 1931, Hurston returned to Plateau, the African-centric community three miles from Mobile founded by Cudjo and other former slaves from his ship. Spending more than three months there, she talked in depth with Cudjo about the details of his life. During those weeks, the young writer and the elderly formerly enslaved man ate peaches and watermelon that grew in the backyard and talked about Cudjo's past--memories from his childhood in Africa, the horrors of being captured and held in a barracoon for selection by American slavers, the harrowing experience of the Middle Passage packed with more than 100 other souls aboard the Clotilda, and the years he spent in slavery until the end of the Civil War. Based on those interviews, featuring Cudjo's unique vernacular, and written from Hurston's perspective with the compassion and singular style that have made her one of the preeminent American authors of the twentieth-century, Barracoon masterfully illustrates the tragedy of slavery and of one life forever defined by it. Offering insight into the pernicious legacy that continues to haunt us all, black and white, this poignant and powerful work is an invaluable contribution to our shared history and culture."--Publisher's website.

Atticus "Atty" Peale is named after her father's favorite fictional character, a lawyer in a famous book. When Atty tries to save the life of a dog in the animal shelter where she volunteers, she ends up arguing for the dog's life in court, inspiring her to speak up for those who don't have a voice. As her dad teaches her law basics, Atty gets involved in his current case defending an illiterate man on a murder charge. When strange occurrences begin to threaten Atty's attempts to help her dad, Atty is determined to find the truth, as well as navigate the strange social scene of seventh grade.

Chronicles the life and achievements of the NASA engineer and inventor, from his childhood to his accidental invention of the Super Soaker water gun.