On December 6, 1917, two ships collided in Halifax Harbour. One ship was loaded top to bottom with munitions and one held relief supplies, both intended for wartorn Europe. The resulting blast flattened two towns, Halifax and Dartmouth, and killed nearly 2,000 people. As if that wasn't devastating enough, a blizzard hit the next day, dumping more than a foot of snow on the area and paralyzing much-needed relief efforts.Fascinating, edge-of-your-seat storytelling based on original so...

River flowing, where’s it going? In the launch of her first board-book series, an award-winning nonfiction author brings the youngest explorers close to nature’s wonders in action.Water springs from the ground, creeks gurgle downhill, snow and rain make streams bigger, and then you have a river. But where does that river go? Step by step, Sally M. Walker’s simple, scientifically accurate narration lets the youngest hydrologists follow wate...

Rolling boulders here and there . . . In the launch of her first board-book series, an award-winning nonfiction author brings the youngest explorers close to nature’s wonders in action.Mighty mountains reach up high, until craggy cliffs tumble and boulders settle everywhere. But how do big, jagged rocks turn into the soft sand we love at the beach? Step by step, Sally M. Walker’s simple, scientifically accurate narration lets the youngest ...

¿De dónde viene la electricidad? ¿Cómo hace que funcione una computadora o que una bombilla ilumine? La electricidad es una forma de energía que puede usarse de muchas maneras. Este libro comienza con las partículas diminutas que conforman los átomos —electrones, protones y neutrones—, subraya los elementos básicos del funcionamiento de la electricidad y amplía la comprensión mediante una serie de experimentos fáciles de poner en práctica.Where does electricity come from? How does ...

High tide, low tide . . . what happens when the tides flow? An award-winning nonfiction author offers the youngest explorers a closer look at nature’s wonders in action.When ocean waters face the moon, waves move toward the sandy dunes and salty water floods the beach. Driftwood bobs on top of waves and fish swim freely below. But what happens when the water retreats and the tide is low? Step by step, Sally M. Walker’s simple narration lets the youngest oceanograph...

The worst maritime disaster in American history wasn’t the Titanic. It was the steamboat Sultana on the Mississippi River—and it was completely preventable.In 1865, the Civil War was winding down and the country was reeling from Lincoln’s assassination. Thousands of Union soldiers, released from Confederate prisoner-of-war camps, were to be transported home on the steamboat Sultana. With a profit to be made, the captain rushed repairs to ...

Bits of rock, plants, and living creatures—what are they all ingredients for? An award-winning nonfiction author offers the youngest explorers a closer look at nature’s wonders in action.Rocks crumble, battered by ice, wind, and water. Plants wilt, trees fall, and old bones, fins, and feathers break apart. What then? Step by step, Sally M. Walker’s simple narration lets the youngest soil scientists learn how dirt is created, becoming home to animals as well as cond...

YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults FinalistOne of the Best Books of the Year: Chicago Public Library, School Library Journal, Science Books & FilmsBright white teeth. Straight leg bones. Awkwardly contorted arm bones. On a hot summer day in 2005, Dr. Douglas Owsley of the Smithsonian Institution peered into an excavated grave, carefully examining the fragile skeleton that had been buried there for four hundred years. "H...

December 6, 1917, started like any other day in Halifax. But everything stopped shortly before nine o’clock that morning, when two ships collided in Halifax Harbour. One of the ships was loaded with munitions for the troops fighting in Europe; the other was preparing to collect medical supplies for the war’s victims.The resulting disaster was the largest man-made explosion until the detonation of the atomic bomb in 1945. The blast flattened large areas of Halifax and the town acros...

American chestnut trees were once found far and wide in North America's eastern forests. They towered up to one hundred feet tall, providing food and shelter for people and animals alike. For many, life without the chestnut seemed unimaginable—until disaster struck in the early 1900s.What began as a wound in the bark of a few trees soon turned to an unstoppable killing force. An unknown blight was wiping out the American chestnut, and scientists felt powerless to prevent it.B...

The worst maritime disaster in American history wasn’t the Titanic. It was the steamboat Sultana on the Mississippi River — and it was completely preventable.In 1865, the Civil War was winding down and the country was reeling from Lincoln’s assassination. Thousands of Union soldiers, released from Confederate prisoner-of-war camps, were to be transported home on the steamboat Sultana. With a profit to be made, the captain rushed repairs t...

A historic mine fire traps hundreds of men underground in a gripping work of narrative nonfiction meticulously researched and told by a master of the genre.It is November 13, 1909, and the coal miners of Cherry, Illinois, head to work with lunch pails in hand, just like any other day. By seven a.m., 484 of these men are underground, starting jobs that range from taking care of the mules that haul coal to operating cages that raise and lower workers and coal to chis...