History For Teens

When James Bond was still in diapers, Virginia Hall was behind enemy lines, playing a dangerous game of cat and mouse with Hitler’s henchmen. Virginia was the baddest broad in any room she walked into. When the State Department proved to be a sexist boys’ club that wouldn’t let her in, she became a spy for the British. This boss lady helped arm and train the French Resistance and organized sabotage missions. There was just one problem: The Butcher of Lyon, a notorious Gestapo commander, was after her. But Virginia’s classmates didn’t call her the Fighting Blade for nothing.

Little boys, some as young as 6, spent their long days, not playing or studying, but sorting coal in dusty, loud, and dangerous conditions. Many of these breaker boys worked 10 hours a day, six days a week all for as little as 45 cents a day. Child labor was common in the United States in the 19th century. It took the compelling, heart breaking photographs of Lewis Hine and others to bring the harsh working conditions to light.

From award-winning journalist and children’s book author Mary Cronk Farrell comes the inspiring and fascinating story of the woman who gave a human face to the Vietnam War. Close-Up on War tells the story of French-born Catherine Leroy, one of the war’s few woman photographers, who documented some of the fiercest fighting in the 20-year conflict. Although she had no formal photographic training and had never before traveled more than a few hundred miles from Paris, Leroy left home at age 21 to travel to Vietnam and document the faces of war.

When Triss wakes up after an accident, she knows something's very wrong. She's insatiably hungry, her sister seems scared of her, and her parents whisper behind closed doors. She looks through her diary to try to remember, but the pages have been ripped out. Soon Triss discovers that what happened to her is more strange and terrible than she could ever have imagined, and that she is quite literally not herself. In a quest to find the truth, she must travel into the terrifying underbelly of the city to meet a twisted architect who has dark designs on her family - before it’s too late.

Weeks ago, Andre Cobb received a much-needed liver transplant. He's ready for his life to finally begin, until one night, when he passes out and wakes up somewhere totally unexpected - in 1969, where he connects with a magnetic boy named Michael. And then, just as suddenly as he arrived, he slips back to present-day Boston, where the family of his donor is waiting to explain that his new liver came with a side effect - the ability to time travel. And they've tasked their youngest son, Blake, with teaching Andre how to use his unexpected new gift.

Ten-year-old Katy Gordon loves baseball, and she's good at it, too. She tries out for the 1958 Little League season in the disguise of a boy, and she gets in easily. But when the coach finds out she's a girl, he forbids her from playing. "Since the beginning of baseball as an organized sport, it has always been the sole province of male athletes, and will remain so", says the Little League director. It's not fair, and Katy, who's also learning about the Civil Rights Movement in school, recognizes this as another societal injustice.

Steeplejack Joe Clark climbed his first factory chimney when he was four years old. Steeplejacking had been in his family for five generations. Not much frightened him. Certainly not stone. So when Joe is offered the lucrative job of repairing the weathercock and stonework on one of Muncaster Cathedral’s spires, he can’t believe his good fortune. But from the moment he saw the medieval gargoyle - lichen colored and hollowed-eyed - he felt uneasy, as if he were being watched. But he wasn’t going to let a few superstitious fears get in the way of his job.

Whether you learned about these women in school or not, these Black women changed society and inspired future generations. Learn all about women such as Sojourner Truth, Anita Hill, Wangari Maathai, Aretha Franklin, Simone Biles, Naomi Osaka, and so many more. Packed with mini biographies of big she-ros, The Book of Awesome Black Women features mighty Black women who are usually omitted from the history books.

It is 1939, Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier, and will become busier still. By her brother's graveside, Liesel's life is changed when she picks up a single object, partially hidden in the snow. It is The Gravedigger's Handbook, left there by accident, and it is her first act of book thievery. So begins a love affair with books and words, as Liesel, with the help of her accordion-playing foster father, learns to read. Soon she is stealing books from Nazi book-burnings.

Listeners will be fascinated by this young adult adaptation of the New York Times bestselling nonfiction work as they follow masterful narratives about real people that reveal an insidious phenomenon in the United States: a hidden caste system. Caste is not only about race or class; it is about power—which groups have it and which do not. Isabel Wilkerson explores historical social hierarchies, including those in India and Nazi Germany, and explains how perpetuating these rankings dehumanizes vast sections of society.

Witness the real-life debates, disagreements, and compromises that led to the formation of the US Constitution during the Constitutional Convention of 1787. The perfect book for budding historians, comic book fans, and everyone in between!

Rose, Ella, Marta and Carla. In another life we might all have been friends together. But this was Birchwood. As 14-year-old Ella begins her first day at work she steps into a world of silks, seams, scissors, pins, hems and trimmings. She is a dressmaker, but this is no ordinary sewing workshop. Hers are no ordinary clients. Ella has joined the seamstresses of Birkenau-Auschwitz. Every dress she makes could mean the difference between life and death.

In this comprehensive, inspiring, and all-too-relevant history of the Black Panther Party, Kekla Magoon introduces listeners to the Panthers’ community activism, grounded in the concept of self-defense, which taught Black Americans how to protect and support themselves in a country that treated them like second-class citizens. For too long the Panthers’ story has been a footnote to the civil rights movement rather than what it was.

If your best friend is named Huckleberry Finn, and there's a girl in your life named Becky Thatcher, a villain named Injun Joe, and you and your friends get into all kinds of mischief and adventures, then you must be that ever-lovin' charmer from Missouri, Tom Sawyer!

Sophie Fitzosborne lives in a crumbling castle in the tiny island kingdom of Montmaray with her eccentric and impoverished royal family. When she receives a journal for her sixteenth birthday, Sophie decides to chronicle day-to-day life on the island. But this is 1936, and the news that trickles in from the mainland reveals a world on the brink of war. The politics of Europe seem far away from their remote island—until two German officers land a boat on Montmaray. And then suddenly politics become very personal indeed.

US leaders need accurate information to make important decisions. They turn to the CIA to get it. Around the clock, members of the CIA are hard at work. As covert officers secretly gather intelligence, analysts are busy studying it. CIA scientists develop high-tech spy gear. But no matter their job, CIA members share a common goal of keeping the country safe.

Many years ago, the magical kingdom of Avalon was left desolate and encased in ice when the evil Snow Queen waged war on the powerful country. Its former citizens are now refugees in a world mostly devoid of magic - which is why the crown prince and his protectors are stuck in...Arizona. Prince Alexei, the sole survivor of the Avalon royal family, is in hiding in a town so lame that magic doesn't even work there. Few know his secret identity, but his friend Tala is one of them. Tala has secrets of her own - namely, that she's a spell breaker, someone who negates magic.

After surviving her otherworldly adventure, Lily wakes up on her nana's farm having forgotten everything. Her sun prince, her travels to Egypt, and her journey to the Afterlife are all distant memories. But Lily is not the girl she once was. Her body is now part human, part lion, and part fairy. And if that isn't bad enough, she must harness this power of three and become Wasret: a goddess destined to defeat the evil god Seth once and for all.

**A READERS' FAVORITE BRONZE MEDAL AWARD WINNER. **A Red Ribbon Winner - Wishing Shelf Book Awards When you have a baby girl you envision many things for her life but becoming a boy is not one of them. This book will benefit anyone who would like to learn more about gender dysphoria and is an absolute must-read for a parent, relative or friend of a gender-questioning or transgender person. What is unique about this deeply personal parenting memoir is that it follows one transgender child from birth through age eighteen. Every step of Evan's son's transition from female to male (FTM) is ...

A five part series telling The Story of Great Britain from its earliest beginnings to World War I. Our Island Story, originally published in 1905 and later updated, details the history of Britain up to World War I (including some myths and legends associated with British history). Author H. E. Marshall based the book on her answers to her children's questions about the history of their "home island" (Great Britain).