"On a cold day in March of 1911, officials marched twelve Black men into the heart of a forest in Maryland. Under the supervision of a doctor, the men were forced to clear the land, pour cement, lay bricks, and harvest tobacco. When construction finished, they became the first twelve patients of the state's Hospital for the Negro Insane. For centuries, Black patients have been absent from our history books. Madness transports readers behind the brick...

V. S. Pritchett called her "a genius." Gore Vidal described her as a "beloved novelist of singular brilliance... Of all the Southern writers, she is the most apt to endure..." And Tennessee Williams said, "The only real writer the South ever turned out, was Carson." She was born Lula Carson Smith in Columbus, Georgia. Her dream was to become a concert pianist, though she'd been writing since she was sixteen and the influence of music was evident throughout...

An introduction to tornadoes explains how they form, the scale used for classifying them, and what to do when a tornado approaches.--

"In 2020, while the COVID-19 pandemic raged, the United States was hit by a ripple of political discontent the likes of which had not been seen since the 1960s. ... The killing of George Floyd galvanized a nation already reeling from COVID and a toxic political cycle. Tens of thousands poured into the streets to protest. Major corporations and large nonprofit groups--institutions that are usually resolutely apolitical--raced to join in. The fervor...

"How do bees fly? Why does a spider weave a web? And why are bugs so important to our world? Ada Twist, Scientist: The Why Files is the perfect nonfiction resource for all these questions and more."--

"Colors don't come out of nothing. They always start somewhere... With something... With someone. Discover how color is harnessed from nature in this survey of dyes and pigments from around the world. Organized by color-from yellow to purple to red and more-Before Colors marries a lyrical core text with tons of informational material for curious readers. In the narrative text, readers will encounter markers and artists as they source and process materials,...

"In Eve, Cat Bohannon answers questions scientists should have been addressing for decades. With boundless curiosity and sharp wit, Bohannon covers the past 200 million years to explain the specific science behind the development of the female sex. Eve is not just a sweeping revision of human history, it's an urgent and necessary corrective for a world that has focused primarily on the male body for far too long. Bohannon's findings, including everything...

"Did you know that there are animals that are completely transparent? That some tube worms live for 1,000 years? That the Pigbutt Worm is also known as the "Flying Buttocks"? Or that there is a type of sea cucumber that is nicknamed "the headless chicken monster?" These are just some of the scientific facts, presented comics-style, that kids will pore over again and again. The Deep! is a rollicking survey of animals that live in the deepest part of...

During childhood summers in Louisiana, Andre Dubus III's grandfather taught him that men's work is hard. As an adult, whether tracking down a drug lord in Mexico as a bounty hunter or grappling with privilege while living with a rich girlfriend in New York City, Dubus worked--at being a better worker and a better human being. In Ghost Dogs, Dubus's nonfiction prowess is on full display in his retelling of his own successes, failures, triumphs, and...

"At opposite ends of the Earth, the polar regions could not be farther apart. And yet the animals who live in the Arctic and Antarctica have a lot in common. They have adapted to live in the world's harshest environments, surviving extreme cold and continuous days of darkness. In this beautiful book, author L.E. Carmichael and illustrator Byron Eggenschwiler take readers on a journey to explore the animal adaptions that make life possible in these...