Here's an ingenious historical fiction picture book about the 16th president of the United States. It’s a tale of two boys who get themselves into more trouble than bear cubs in a candy store.

The year is 1816. Abe is only seven years old, and his pal, Austin, is ten. Abe and Austin decide to journey down to Knob Creek. The water looks scary and deep, and Austin points out that they don’t know how to swim. Nevertheless, they decide to traverse it. I won’t tell you what happens, but let’s just say that our country wouldn’t be the same if Austin hadn’t been there to help his friend.


From the Hardcover edition....

Smart and sure, hardworking, talented, professional and passionate, loving wife and mother, daughter, sister, friend.

This is the story of a girl from Chicago who dared to dream big, worked hard to make things happen, and grew up to be an extraordinary woman: Michelle Robinson Obama.

Deborah Hopkinson and AG Ford capture the inspiring story of the first African American First Lady in this beautiful picture-book biography.

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The world has come to know Michelle Obama as an elegant and strong woman. She is wife to President Barack Obama, mother to Malia and Sasha, but also a professional and passionate woman who has devoted her life to working to strengthen her community and country. This is the story of our First Lady. During her childhood, she learned to dream big, and throughout her life she has dared to take on challenges and suceeded in getting big things done.

This beautiful and thoughtful picture book by the award-winning author Deborah Hopkinson and with artwork by the New York Times bestselling AG Ford delivers the inspiring story of Michelle with grace and style.

Ages: 4 - 7

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Widely acclaimed for her award-winning picture books, Deborah Hopkinson presents the amazing story of John A. Lomax, the fi rst man to popularize such great American folk songs as “Sweet Betsy from Pike,” “Git Along Little Dogies” and, of course, “Home on the Range.”

When John was a boy in Texas, he wrote down all he’d learned from cowboys. Years later, with the encouragement of a beloved teacher, John set out on a cross-country trip to fi nd more songs for a book. Taking along his clunky Ediphone recording device, he convinced cowboys and Gypsies to sing for him and soon he had hundreds of songs preserved for generations to come.

S. D. Schindler’s gorgeous art brings the West alive in this inspiring story of discovery, which shows that if you love something as a child, you don’t have to give it up as an adult!...

At work, at play, at home, in the White House.

The White House is a museum, the office of the chief executive, a gathering place for leaders and visitors from around the globe, and it is also a home for one special family—the First Family.

This book follows a day in the life of the Obama family: President Barack, First Lady Michelle, First Daughters Malia and Sasha, and even First Pup Bo. From moving in on inauguration day to making important decisions, hosting state dinners, planting a garden, exploring the historic house, and leading around the Secret Service, the First Family is very busy.

Deborah Hopkinson and AG Ford take young readers through an extraordinary ordinary day in the life of America's much-beloved First Family.

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The acclaimed team that brought readers the IRA Children’s Book Award—winning Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt is back with a riveting brick-by-brick account of how one of the most amazing accomplishments in American architecture came to be. It’s 1930 and times are tough for Pop and his son. But look! On the corner of 34th Street and 5th Avenue, a building straight and simple as a pencil is being built in record time. Hundreds of men are leveling, shoveling, hauling. They’re hoisting 60,000 tons of steal, stacking 10 million bricks, eating lunch in the clouds. And when they cut ribbon and the crowds rush in, the boy and his father will be among the first to zoom up to the top of the tallest building in the world and see all of Manhattan spread at their feet....

Maria's wish burns as brightly as a star.

Maria longs to be an astronomer and imagines all the strange worlds she can travel to by looking though her papa's telescope. One night Maria gets her chance to look through the telescope. For the first time, she sees the night sky stretching endlessly above her, and her dream of exploring constellations seems close enough to touch.

In this story, inspired by the life of Maria Mitchell, America's first woman astronomer, "viewers will find the cobalt-blue nights, lit with constellations that make imaginary (and actual) pictures in the sky, every bit as attractive as Maria does."...

“I believe I can just see you on the streets of that bright city.”

Gran’s gone now, but her words live on with Nicholas Dray, almost twelve, as he makes his way from the hot cotton fields to that Queen of Cities: San Francisco. Nick’s on his own for the first time, with nowhere to turn. Then he meets jaunty, talkative Pat Patterson, owner of the most beautiful store–and the friendliest golden dog–in all the city. And for the first time in months, Nick feels safe. Safe in San Francisco.

But the year is 1906, the month is April, and early one morning the walls begin to shake. The floor begins to buckle. And the earth opens up. A devastating earthquake and then raging firestorms ravage the city, and Nick is right in the middle of it all. But for a young boy who’s got few ties and nothing to lose, what’s the right choice: escape to safety or stay–at deadly risk–to help others?

From acclaimed author Deborah Hopkinson comes a suspenseful and carefully researched novel of the Great 1906 San Francisco Earthquake and Fire and of one boy’s heroic fight to survive it.


From the Hardcover edition....

Here's an ingenious historical fiction picture book about the 16th president of the United States. It’s a tale of two boys who get themselves into more trouble than bear cubs in a candy store.

The year is 1816. Abe is only seven years old, and his pal, Austin, is ten. Abe and Austin decide to journey down to Knob Creek. The water looks scary and deep, and Austin points out that they don’t know how to swim. Nevertheless, they decide to traverse it. I won’t tell you what happens, but let’s just say that our country wouldn’t be the same if Austin hadn’t been there to help his friend....

Apples, ho!

When Papa decides to pull up roots and move from Iowa to Oregon, he can't bear to leave his precious apple trees behind. Or his peaches, plums, grapes, cherries, and pears. Oh, and he takes his family along too. But the trail is cruel -- first there's a river to cross that's wider than Texas...and then there are hailstones as big as plums...and there's even a drought, sure to crisp the cherries. Those poor pippins! Luckily Delicious (the nonedible apple of Daddy's eye) is strong -- as young 'uns raised on apples are -- and won't let anything stop her father's darling saps from tasting the sweet Oregon soil.

Here's a hilarious tall tale -- from the team that brought you Fannie in the Kitchen -- that's loosely based on the life of a real fruiting pioneer.

Apple Facts

More than 7,500 varieties of apples are grown throughout the world.

About 2,500 varieties grow in the United States.

The apple variety Delicious is the most widely grown in the United States.

Apples are part of the rose family.

The science of fruit growing is called pomology.

Fresh apples float. That's because 25 percent of their volume is air.

Cut an apple in half, across the core, and you'll see a star shape.

It takes apple trees four to five years to produce their first fruit.

It takes about thirty-six apples to make one gallon of apple cider....

A Band of Angels is fiction, but it is based on real events and people. The character of Ella was inspired by Ella Sheppard Moore, who was born February 4, 1851, in Nashville, Tennessee. Her father was able to free himself and young Ella from slavery, but before he could buy freedom for Ella's mother she was sold away. Ella was raised in Cincinnati, where she took music lessons. At fifteen, she was left penniless when her father died. She arrived at Fisk School in 1868 with only six dollars.

Fisk was opened in 1866 as a school for former slaves and began offering college classes in 1871. That year, in a desperate attempt to save Fisk from closing, a music teacher named George White set out with a group of students on a singing tour to raise money. Although at first they only sang popular music of the day, they soon became famous for introducing spirituals to the world.

Ella Sheppard was the pianist for the Jubilee Singers on their historic concert tours, which raised enough money to save the school and build Jubilee Hall, the first permanent structure in the South for the education of black students. Ella later married George Moore, had three children, and located her mother and a sister. She died in 1914. Today her great-granddaughter is a librarian at Fisk University who shares the history of the Jubilee Singers with visitors.

Although none graduated from Fisk, the original Jubilee Singers were recognized with honorary degrees in 1978. Today, Jubilee Singers at Fisk University continue to keep alive a rich musical tradition that includes such songs as "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot," "Many Thousand Gone," and "Go Down, Moses."...

A riveting account of African-American explorer Matthew Henson s 1909 journey to the North Pole with Admiral Peary Many know the story of Robert Peary s great 1909 expedition to reach the North Pole. Yet few people know that Peary was joined on this grueling, history-making journey by fellow explorer Matthew Henson.

Henson was born just after the Civil War, a time when slavery had been abolished, but few opportunities were available for black people. Even as a child, he exhibited a yearning for adventure, and at the age of only thirteen, he embarked on a five-year voyage sailing the seven seas and learning navigation, history, and mathematics.
Henson s greatest adventure began when he accepted an invitation by Robert Peary to join his expedition to the North Pole. The team endured storms, shifting ice, wind, injuries, accidents, and unimaginable cold. Finally on April 1, Peary, Henson, and four Inuit men began the final 133-mile push to the Pole.

Readers will share in the excitement and drama of this remarkable, history-making adventure as award-winning author Deborah Hopkinson pays tribute to a great but under recognized figure from America s past. Illustrator Stephen Alcorn s large-format, stylized ink-and-watercolor illustrations capture all the action. Excerpts from Henson s expedition diaries, a timeline, and an epilogue place the story in its historical context....

When Alta Weiss throws a corncob at a tomcat chasing her favorite hen, folks know one thing for sure: she may be a girl, but she's got some arm. At the age of six Alta can nail any target, and by seventeen she's outpitched every boy in town. Then one day her father takes Alta to Vermilion, Ohio -- home of the semipro baseball team called the Independents. "Where do I sign up?" she asks. But one look at Alta tells the coach all he needs to know: She's a girl, and girls can't play baseball. But faster than you can say "strike out," Alta proves him wrong: Girls can play baseball!...

Apples, ho!

When Papa decides to pull up roots and move from Iowa to Oregon, he can't bear to leave his precious apple trees behind. Or his peaches, plums, grapes, cherries, and pears. Oh, and he takes his family along too. But the trail is cruel -- first there's a river to cross that's wider than Texas...and then there are hailstones as big as plums...and there's even a drought, sure to crisp the cherries. Those poor pippins! Luckily Delicious (the nonedible apple of Daddy's eye) is strong -- as young 'uns raised on apples are -- and won't let anything stop her father's darling saps from tasting the sweet Oregon soil.

Here's a hilarious tall tale -- from the team that brought you Fannie in the Kitchen -- that's loosely based on the life of a real fruiting pioneer.

Apple Facts

More than 7,500 varieties of apples are grown throughout the world.

About 2,500 varieties grow in the United States.

The apple variety Delicious is the most widely grown in the United States.

Apples are part of the rose family.

The science of fruit growing is called pomology.

Fresh apples float. That's because 25 percent of their volume is air.

Cut an apple in half, across the core, and you'll see a star shape.

It takes apple trees four to five years to produce their first fruit.

It takes about thirty-six apples to make one gallon of apple cider....

This inspiring story of little-known civil rights champion Oscar Chapman and his role in Marian Anderson's concert at the Lincoln Memorial reminds readers that one person can truly make a difference.

On Easter Sunday 1939, Marian Anderson performed at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial in front of a crowd of over 75,000 people. The person largely responsible for putting her there was a white man, Oscar Chapman, assistant secretary of the interior under President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

When Chapman learned that Marian Anderson was not allowed to sing at Constitution hall because of the color of her skin, he took it upon himself to do the impossible: find Marian Anderson an appropriate venue for a concert and make an important statement about equality and the rights of all Americans. With support from the highest levels of U.S. government, Chapman helped produce a landmark concert that-for at least one evening-bridged the color divide to bring a city and much of the nation together.

Author Deborah Hopkinson tells the inspirational story of Oscar Chapman, including his childhood exposure to racism that led to his lifelong commitment to ending bigotry. An author's note provides additional historical context. Illustrator Leonard Jenkins remarkable illustrations recreate a bygone era and pay tribute to remarkable real-life people and a magical moment in modern history....

Unlike most girls of her time, Susan B. Anthony received an education. And besides reading and writing, her schooling taught her that women should have the same rights as men, above all the right to vote. So from the time she was a young woman until the day she died, Susan worked very hard to change America and make her dream reality....

Award-winning duo Deborah Hopkinson and James E. Ransome combine their talents once more for this sequel to the best-selling Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt. Traveling late one night, a runaway slave girl spies a quilt hanging outside a house. The quilt's center is a striking deep blue -- a sign that the people inside are willing to help her escape. Can she bravely navaigate the complex world of the Underground Railroad and lead her family to freedom?...

Sal sure can sing. But she can also catch a fish with her bare hands, ride a wild bronco, and drive a stagecoach.  And she's nobody's fool. When Sal makes her first stagecoach journey alone to deliver the mail for her sick pa, her ma is nervous. But the wild frontier is no match for Sal, and neither is Poetic Pete, the wiliest stagecoach robber in the West.
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A young slave stitches a quilt with a map pattern which guides her to freedom in the North....

STORMS ARE BREWING

When Charlie and Papa arrive in Lawrence for supplies, they find the bustling Kansas town threatened by border ruffians from proslave Missouri. Papa decides to remain behind with other free-soil settlers to defend the town, so Charlie must drive the wagon back to the family's isolated claim by himself.

At home a different sort of storm is brewing -- gray skies, bitter cold, and vicious winds warn that a prairie blizzard is coming. Charlie is always getting into trouble for daydreaming and forgetting his chores. Now he has to show he's grown-up enough to help Momma, his sisters, and his newborn baby brother survive in their tiny cabin in the snow....

In UP BEFORE DAYBREAK, acclaimed author Deborah Hopkinson captures the voices of the forgotten men, women, and children who worked in the cotton industry in America over the centuries. The voices of the slaves who toiled in the fields in the South, the poor sharecroppers who barely got by, and the girls who gave their lives to the New England mills spring to life through oral histories, archival photos, and Hopkinson's engaging narrative prose style. These stories are amazing and often heartbreaking, and they are imbedded deep in our nation's history....

December 1, 1855
The sea is never still. Sometimes it roars so load that it drowns our voices. Mama says there hasn't been a storm this fierce since the night I was born. She thinks it too dangerous for me to go to the tower again. Yet what else can I do? I'm the lightkeeper now.

On the tiny lighthouse island that is her family's new home, Birdie faithfully keeps a journal. She writes down everthing: the change of seasons, the rhythms of the sea, and all that her father, the lightkeeper, is teaching her. But then one stormy night, her father is taken ill. And only Birdie knows how to keep the lighthouse's strong beam running. Will she be brave enough to guide the boats safely into harbor?...

As a seamstress in the Big House, Clara is luckier than the slaves who work the fields. Still, she dreams of a reunion with her Momma, who lives on another plantation–and even of running away to freedom. Then she hears two slaves talking about how they could find the Underground Railroad if only they had a map. In a flash of inspiration, Clara sees how she can use the cloth in her scrap bag to make a map of the land–a freedom quilt–that no master will ever suspect. Drawn from true incidents in African-American history, this is a compelling and emotionally charged picture book....

As a young boy, Charles Darwin hated school and was often scolded for conducting "useless" experiments. Yet his passion for the natural world was so strong that he suffered through terrible seasickness during his five-year voyage aboard The Beagle. Darwin collected new creatures from the coasts of Africa, South America, and the Galapagos Islands, and expanded his groundbreaking ideas that would change people’s understanding of the natural world. About 100 illustrations and a clear, exciting text will make Darwin and his theory of evolution an exciting discovery for every young reader....

Marcia enjoys being her mother's helper, so she's hurt when Mother hires Fannie Farmer to prepare family's meals. But sure enough Fannie's charm (and griddle cakes!) win Marcia over, and she finds herself cooking up delights she never thought possible!...

As a young boy, Charles Darwin hated school and was often scolded for conducting "useless" experiments. Yet his passion for the natural world was so strong that he suffered through terrible seasickness during his five-year voyage aboard The Beagle. Darwin collected new creatures from the coasts of Africa, South America, and the Galapagos Islands, and expanded his groundbreaking ideas that would change people’s understanding of the natural world. About 100 illustrations and a clear, exciting text will make Darwin and his theory of evolution an exciting discovery for every young reader....