Escape! The story of the great Houdini

by Sid Fleischman

"Who was this man who could walk through brick walls and, with a snap of his fingers, vanish elephants? In these pages you will meet the astonishing Houdini—magician, ghost chaser, daredevil, pioneer aviator, and king of escape artists. No jail cell or straitjacket could hold him! He shucked off handcuffs as easily as gloves.

In this fresh, witty biography of the most famous bamboozler since Merlin, Sid Fleischman, a former professional magician, enriches his warm homage with insider information and unmaskings. Did Houdini really pick the jailhouse lock to let a fellow circus performer escape? Were his secrets really buried with him? Was he a bum magician, as some rivals claimed? How did he manage to be born in two cities, in two countries, on two continents at the same instant?

Here are the stories of how a knockabout kid named Ehrich Weiss, the son of an impoverished rabbi, presto-changoed himself into the legendary Harry Houdini. Here, too, are rare photographs never before seen by the general reader! "

from the publisher's website

Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation

by Joseph J. Ellis

"An illuminating study of the intertwined lives of the founders of the American republic—John Adams, Aaron Burr, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and George Washington.

During the 1790s, which Ellis calls the most decisive decade in our nation's history, the greatest statesmen of their generation—and perhaps any—came together to define the new republic and direct its course for the coming centuries. Ellis focuses on six discrete moments that exemplify the most crucial issues facing the fragile new nation: Burr and Hamilton's deadly duel, and what may have really happened; Hamilton, Jefferson, and Madison's secret dinner, during which the seat of the permanent capital was determined in exchange for passage of Hamilton's financial plan; Franklin's petition to end the "peculiar institution" of slavery—his last public act—and Madison's efforts to quash it; Washington's precedent-setting Farewell Address, announcing his retirement from public office and offering his country some final advice; Adams's difficult term as Washington's successor and his alleged scheme to pass the presidency on to his son; and finally, Adams and Jefferson's renewed correspondence at the end of their lives, in which they compared their different views of the Revolution and its legacy."

From the publisher's website

Winner of the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for History

A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier

by Ishmael Beah

"A gripping story of a child’s journey through hell and back.

There may be as many as 300,000 child soldiers, hopped-up on drugs and wielding AK-47s, in more than fifty conflicts around the world. Ishmael Beah used to be one of them. He is one of the first to tell his story in his own words.

In A Long Way Gone, Beah, now twenty-six years old, tells a riveting story. At the age of twelve, he fled attacking rebels and wandered a land rendered unrecognizable by violence. By thirteen, he’d been picked up by the government army, and Beah, at heart a gentle boy, found that he was capable of truly terrible acts. Eventually released by the army and sent to a UNICEF rehabilitation center, he struggled to regain his humanity and to reenter the world of civilians, who viewed him with fear and suspicion. This is, at last, a story of redemption and hope."

From the author’s website

Aliens Are Coming! The True Account of the 1938 War of the Worlds Radio Broadcast

by Meghan McCarthy

"It was an ordinary night in October of 1938 until a news bulletin interrupted the dance music on CBS radio–aliens were invading the United States!

Meghan McCarthy’s hilarious Aliens Are Coming! tells the true story of the Halloween radio prank that duped much of the country into believing that Martians had invaded. The book uses excerpts from the actual War of the Worlds radio broadcast and includes information about the importance of radios in the 1930s (before the time of televisions and computers) as well as facts about Orson Welles and H. G. Wells, author of the novel on which the broadcast was based."

From the publisher's website

Mythbusters: The Explosive Truth Behind 30 of the Most Perplexing Urban Legends of All Time

by Keith and Kent Zimmerman

"Could you kill someone by dropping a penny from a skyscraper? Can an unsuspecting scuba diver be sucked out of the water by a firefighting helicopter and get spit out in the middle of a forest fire? Can you save yourself in a plummeting elevator by jumping just before it hits bottom?

Special effects experts Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage, hosts of the Discovery Channel's top-rated MythBusters, use modern-day extreme science to show you what's real and what's fiction. With photographs, illustrations, blueprints, and exclusive interviews to document the mythbusting process, MythBusters: The Explosive Truth Behind 30 of the Most Perplexing Urban Legends of All Time will examine dozens of urban legends, from exploding toilets to being buried alive -- these guys have tested them all. Eye-opening, jaw-dropping, and even laugh-inducing, this book will delight armchair scientists, curious readers, and fans of the show alike."

From the publisher’s website

Chew On This: Everything You Don't Want To Know About Fast Food

by Eric Schlosser and Charles Wilson

"Including passages from Schlosser's best-selling adult book Fast Food Nation (2001) and other writings, the authors dish up a somewhat-less-stomach-churning look at the fast-food industry's growth, practices, and effects on public health. Folding in original interviews, recent statistics, and published research, along with such spicy taglines as "The Golden Arches are now more widely recognized than the Christian cross," they trace the hamburger's early years and the evolution of the McDonald's Corporation's revolutionary Speedee Service System. They follow with vivid tours through feedlots, abattoirs, and a chicken-processing plant to explore how fast food has achieved spectacular international success, particularly among an increasingly obese youth market, then round off with glimpses of Alice Waters' Edible Schoolyard initiative and other alternatives less likely to lead to gastric bypass surgery. Readers may not lose their appetites for McFood from this compelling study, but they will definitely come away less eager to get a McJob and more aware of the diet's attendant McMedical problems. Extensive endnotes, occasional photos."

From Amazon.com – written by John Peters © ALA

Remember: the Journey to School Integration

by Toni Morrison

"This book is about you. Even though the main event in the story took place many years ago, what happened before it and after is now part of all our lives. Because remembering is the mind's first step toward understanding, this book is designed to take you on a journey through a time in American life when there was as much hate as there was love; as much anger as there was hope; as many heroes as cowards. As with any journey, there is often a narrow path to walk before you can see the wide road ahead. And sometimes there is a closed gate between the path and the road."

From the publisher's website

Inside Delta Force: The Story of America’s Elite Counterterrorist Unit

by Eric L. Haney

"They are the U.S. Army’s most elite, top-secret strike force. But you won’t hear about their heroics on the news, and no one–even their families–can know who they are. First Special Forces Operational Detachment-D–Delta Force, America’s supersecret counterterrorist unit. On paper they do not exist, but without them, our lives wouldn’t be the same. From learning to open padlocks with a soda can to rescuing hijacked airplanes, these men are masters of espionage and warfare. They are the anonymous heroes who protect us everyday from the threats we’ll never know existed. "

From the publisher's website