fiction

Long ago in the town of Bethlehem, young Harold the rooster keeps failing to wake the other farm animals in the morning, but when a young woman gives birth to a very special baby in the stable, Harold is finally able to crow loudly and help spread the good news.

Recounts how Frans Braal, a resistance worker in Holland, and his family risked their own lives to protect Dutch Jews from Nazi troops during World War II, using the story of a fictional child to tell the true story of the family's bravery.

Ten-year-old Jason uses everything he knows about research, including how to separate fact from fiction when using the Internet, to make the deadline for his history paper on scientist Alexander Fleming--the discoverer of penicillin. Includes research tips, emphasizing the importance of accuracy.

During the Revolutionary War, a Jewish soldier from Poland lights the menorah on the first night of Hanukkah and tells General George Washington the story of the Maccabees and themiracle that Hanukkah celebrates.

Presents a story about the childhood of New York Yankees catcher Jorge Posada, including being coached by his father to bat left-handed and how it leads right to the major leagues.

When the school principal promises to kiss a pig if the students read 10,000 books, a girl volunteers Hamlet, her unwilling, Shakespeare-quoting pet pig.

As a young girl, budding astronomer Maria Mitchell dreams of searching the night sky and some day finding a new comet.

Thirteen-year-old Robert "Qwerty" Stevens uses the time machine he finds in his back yard to visit Thomas Edison's workshop in 1879, and there helps develop the electric light bulb, but then needs his sister's help to return to his own time.

The ghost of Willie, President Abraham Lincoln's older son, transports Lindsey back to his own time, where she sees and hears many things from both sides of the Civil War. Includes passages from contemporary documents, a glossary, biographical sketches, and a bibliography.

Eight-year-old Giotto the shepherd boy confesses his dream of becoming an artist to the painter Cimabue, who teaches him how to make marvelous pigments from minerals, flowers, and eggs and takes him on as his pupil.