chicago (ill.)

While visiting the National Figure Skating Championships in Chicago, a top woman skater takes a fall. She is taken to the hospital in critical condition. Nancy suspects sabotage. Then the computer chips in the scoreboard are stolen!.

A twelve-year-old street urchin and the son of Chicago's most important jeweler strike up an unlikely friendship in the days before the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, and both are nearly trapped when the city goes up in flames.

Devastated by her parents' decision to split up, pressured by her boyfriend to have sex, and saddled with a case of chicken pox, fifteen-year-old Keek finds consolation in her beloved, well-worn copy of Sylvia Plath's "The Bell Jar.".

Sixteen-year-old Christy, living with her reformed hippy parents in Chicago, has her belief in astrology strongly reinforced when, on a visit to the plastic surgeon to have the tattooed name of her former boyfriend, Benjamin, removed from her chest, she meets the very attractive Ben, who is having a tattoo of the name "Christy" removed from his arm.

Twelve-year-old Petey Williamson, secure in the knowledge that his father has a job, learns that things can change very quickly when the Depression hits and his family begins sliding into poverty.

Playing the cornet is the first thing that twelve-year-old Paulie Horvath has taken seriously, but his obsession with becoming a jazz musician leads him into conflict with his parents and into the tough underworld of Chicago in the 1920s.

An account of the fire that raged for twenty-four hours over much of Chicago in October 1871, destroying property and homes and killing at least 300 people.

Follows the life and career of Chicago's first African-American mayor, assessing his impact as lawyer, state representative,state senator, mayor, and national leader.

Discusses the building of the Sears Tower from its design to its status as a Chicago landmark tourist attraction.

A biography of Michelle Obama, discussing her childhood, education, legal career, marriage to Barack Obama, and role as first lady of the United States.