This biography of America's first African American naval aviator is a "compelling portrait of a quiet hero [and] the racial climate between 1926 and 1959" ( Booklist)."In the late 1940s, when every aspiring black pilot had heard of the army's Tuskegee program, Jesse Leroy Brown set his sights on becoming a navy aviator. An outstanding student and top athlete, the 17-year-old's ambition was met with a combination of incredulity and resistance. Yet, at a time...

An account of the WWII sea battle by the author of The Cay: "The story of the Bismarck is one of exciting high adventure, and [Taylor] captures it nicely." — The New York TimesFrom the award-winning author, this is a compelling history of the sinking of British battlecruiser H.M.S. Hood in the cold waters of the North Atlantic in 1941. It was a great loss to the Royal Navy and resulted in the deaths of more than fourteen hundred sailors. S...

"A high-impact techno-thriller [that] brings readers into the heart of WWII's Battle of the Atlantic . . . To Kill the Leopard is a winner." — Publishers WeeklyThe U-boat under Horst Kammerer's command bears a leopard insignia, and Kammerer is indeed a feral hunter as he torpedoes Sully Jordan's oil tanker. The merchant marine escapes with his life—only to encounter Kammerer again a month after Pearl Harbor. After Jordan loses yet another ship to t...

A tense and compulsive survival story of a young boy and an old man adrift on the ocean, then marooned on a tiny, deserted island. It is also a fascinating study of the relationship between Phillip, white, American, and influenced by his mother's prejudices, and the black man upon whom Phillip's life depends.

"First-class . . . more than the biography of a great aviator and military leader. It also is a detailed and lively history of naval aviation." — The New York TimesAir Adm. Marc Mitscher is a legend in military circles for developing an entirely new concept of war at sea. His skills as both a carrier tactician and genius for leading men rank him with the best World War II combat commanders. However, because Mitscher shunned publicity and destroyed his priv...

In the novel The Cay, a young white boy and an old black man are stranded on a small sandy cay in the Caribbean Sea following a shipwreck. Eleven-year-old Phillip was blinded by flying debris when a torpedo struck the SS Hato, and old Timothy has taught him how to survive. This prequel-sequel tells the rest of their tale in alternating chapters--the compelling story of two very different people who share the courage and tenacity to turn their dreams into reality.

Chip Clewt, known simply as the weirdo, lives like a hermit in the Powhatan Swamp, a National Wildlife Refuge that is at the center of a heated controversy between local hunters and environmentalists. A hunting ban on the Powhatan is about to expire. The environmentalists want to protect the wildlife; the hunters are oiling their guns. Then someone completely unexpected comes forward to spearhead the conservation effort--the weirdo.Includes a reader's guide.

This YA Western adventure imagines an alternate fate for the famous outlaw: " Readers will hang on anxiously and eagerly as the plot gallops [forward]" ( Publishers Weekly, starred review).William H. Bonney Jr., better known as Billy the Kid, isn't afraid to take risks. But when a train passenger recognizes him in the middle of a heist near his hometown, it seems like the odds have finally caught up with him.Fed up with Billy's bad...

Jon Jeffers is the loneliest nine-year-old on earth. It's 1935, and he's stuck on a tiny rocky island off the coast of San Francisco with his mother and his lighthouse-keeper father. Jon longs for something more. If only he had a way to escape this forsaken pile of rocks, he could have some real adventures.Then one morning the irritable ghost of an ancient magician appears on the beach and offers—amazingly—to teach Jon to fly. Jon agrees, and at first flying seems to be th...

The year is 1868, and fourteen-year-old Alika and his younger brother, Sulu, are hunting for seals on an ice floe attached to their island in the Arctic. Suddenly the ice starts to shake, and they hear a loud crack--the terrible sound of the floe breaking free from land. The boys watch with horror as the dark expanse of water between the ice and the shore rapidly widens, and they start drifting south--away from their home, their family, and everything they've ever known.Throughout ...

It is 1946, a year after the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and World War II is over. But the U.S. government has decided that further tests of atomic bombs must be conducted. When Bikini Atoll is chosen for the testing site, the inhabitants of the tiny island are told they must relocate for just two years. But sixteen-year-old Sorry Rinamu believes the Americans are lying and that it will never be safe to return. He must find a way to stop the first bomb before it is dropped...

Ben and Teetoncey take to the sea--he, to find his brother, and she, to escape a forced return to England. But can they survive storms, harsh ship life, and a relentless pursuer?