Showing titles in Biographical Fiction

When pirates attacked her town and the captain took a liking to her, she saw a way out. Zheng Yi Sao agreed to marry him only if she got an equal share of his business. When her husband died six years later, she took command of the fleet. Over the next decade, the pirate queen built a fleet of over 1,800 ships and 70,000 men. On land and sea, Zheng Yi Sao's power rivaled the emperor himself. Time and again, her ships triumphed over the emperor's ships.

In 1939 the Nazis invade Lodz, Poland, forcing four-year-old Syvia Perlmutter and 270,000 other Jews into a ghetto surrounded by barbed wire and guarded by armed men. Scared and confused, Syvia and the others have no idea how terrible their lives will soon be.

Before he was a household name, Cassius Clay was a kid with struggles like any other. Kwame Alexander and James Patterson join forces to vividly depict his life up to age seventeen in both prose and verse, including his childhood friends, struggles in school, the racism he faced, and his discovery of boxing. Readers will learn about Cassius' family and neighbors in Louisville, Kentucky, and how, after a thief stole his bike, Cassius began training as an amateur boxer at age twelve.

Wangari lives in the lush, green land of rural Kenya, where the soil is perfect for planting, the trees tower into the sky and the streams are full of mysterious creatures. All day, she plays beneath her favourite fig tree, and at night, she gathers around the fire with her family to listen to her mother's stories. Then Wangari grows up and goes away to school, and things start changing at home. Farmers chop down the trees. Landslides bury the stream. The soil becomes overworked and dry, and nothing will grow. People go hungry.

In 1939, the Germans invaded the town of Lodz, Poland, and moved the Jewish population into a small part of the city called a ghetto. As the war progressed, 270,000 people were forced to settle in the ghetto under impossible conditions. At the end of the war, there were about 800 survivors. Of those who survived, only twelve were children. This is the story of one of the twelve.

Alicia was born to dance. From the moment she slips on pointe shoes for the first time, she’s determined to become a professional ballerina. A few years later, Alicia moves from Cuba to the United States to follow her dreams. Then, Alicia begins to lose her sight. How can a ballerina dance if she can’t see where she’s going? Stuck in bed and only able to practice with her fingertips, Alicia doesn’t give up. She finds a way to get back on stage, dancing into the hearts of audiences as one of the world’s most famous prima ballerinas.

Junko is bad at athletics. Really bad. Other students laugh because they think she is small and weak. Then her teacher takes the class on a trip to a mountain. It’s bigger than any Junko’s ever seen, but she is determined to make it to the top. Ganbatte, her teacher tells her. Do your best. After that first trip, Junko becomes a mountaineer in body and spirit. She climbs snowy mountains, rocky mountains and even faraway mountains outside of her home country of Japan.

Rifka knows nothing about America when she flees from Russia with her family in 1919. But she dreams that in the new country she will at last be safe from the Russian soldiers and their harsh treatment of the Jews. Throughout her journey, Rifka carries with her a cherished volume of poetry by Alexander Pushkin. In it, she records her observations and experiences in the form of letters to Tovah, the beloved cousin she has left behind.

I found inspiration to pen another children’s book just this morning (November 20, 2023). This time, it draws from the lives of my father, Mr. Stifford John Snow, a farmer in Coker, St. Elizabeth, Jamaica, and my Uncle-in-law, Mr. Vinrow Small, from St. Mary, Jamaica. And so, I have chosen to entitle it The Rasta Farmer. The purpose of writing this book is to pay homage to these two remarkable individuals my biological father, Mr. Stifford John Snow and my Uncle-in-law, Mr. Vinrow Small, who raised me from the age of twelve (12) to twenty-six (26) years old.

"Ce livre n'est pas une autobiographie. L'idée ne me viendrait pas d'écrire pareil ouvrage. Par ailleurs, durant mes jeunes années à l'école, et juste après, ma vie a été émaillée d'incidents que je n'ai jamais oubliés. Certains furent drôles. Certains douloureux. Certains déplaisants. C'est pour cette raison, je suppose, que je me les rappelle tous de façon si aiguë."

Charlotte Parkhurst was raised in the mid-1800s and was expected to live her life without the freedoms she dreamed of. But Charlotte was smart and determined, and she figured out a way to live her life the way she wanted; Charlotte became an expert horse rider, a legendary stagecoach driver, and the first woman ever to vote—at a time when such things were outlawed for women.

Inspired by a true story, Kafka and the Doll recounts a remarkable gesture of kindness from one of the world's most bewildering and iconic writers. In the fall of 1923, Franz Kafka encountered a distraught little girl on a walk in the park. She'd lost her doll and was inconsolable. Kafka told her the doll wasn't lost, but instead, traveling the world and having grand adventures! And to reassure her, Kafka began delivering letters from the doll to the girl for weeks.

Aspiring writer Aggie Morton is ready to enjoy a trip to a Yorkshire spa, where her widowed mother can take the waters and recover from a long mourning period. Having solved yet another murder and faced extreme peril with her best friend, Hector, over Christmas, Aggie’s Morbid Preoccupation is on alert when rumors abound about the spa's recently deceased former patient...and then another body appears under mysterious circumstances. Aggie and Hector take a closer look at the guests and staff of the Wellspring Hotel, and venture into the intriguing world of the local undertaker.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: The Original 1884 Unabridged and Complete Edition by Mark Twain is a timeless American classic that follows the journey of a young boy named Huck Finn as he escapes the constraints of civilization and embarks on a raft voyage down the Mississippi River.

Lotta ha quattro anni (e qualcosa). Ha un fratello, Jonas, e una sorella, Mia-Maria. E due genitori molto pazienti. Poi ha Orso, il maiale di pezza da cui non si separa mai, e una vicina di casa gentilissima, la signora Berg. E non basta, perché la piccola Lotta ha anche un mucchio di idee balzane: un giorno, per esempio, sparisce e va a casa della vicina, perché ormai è grande abbastanza per vivere da sola e la sua mamma è troppo cattiva.

Lançado em 1968, O meu pé de laranja lima é uma história autobiográfica que conta as aventuras de Zezé, menino travesso que tem por melhor amigo um pé de laranja lima, a pequena árvore do quintal de sua casa. Nascido em uma família numerosa, Zezé é um garoto sensível e inteligente, que conquista os adultos pela generosidade e perspicácia. Cheio de questionamentos sobre o mundo, narra as principais lembranças de sua infância, em meio às dificuldades econômicas que o impedem de ter os mesmos presentes que outras crianças vizinhas.

Sarah is the first person in her family who wasn’t born into slavery in Delta, Louisiana. But being free doesn’t mean that Sarah doesn’t have to work. She cooks, she cleans, she picks cotton, she does laundry and she babysits. And when she works, she wraps up her hair. One day, Sarah’s hair starts to fall out! It’s itchy, crunchy, patchy and won’t grow. Instead of giving up, Sarah searches for the right products. And then she invents something better than any shampoo or hair oil she’s used before.

Native American princess or British celebrity? Pocahontas played a pivotal role in the New World, but the powerful pull between her tribe and the new settlement on Virginia's shores took its toll.

Eleven-year-old Viviani Fedeler has spent her whole life in the New York Public Library. She knows every room by heart, except the ones her father keeps locked. When Viviani becomes convinced that the library is haunted, new girl Merit Mubarak makes fun of her. So Viviani decides to play a harmless little prank, roping her older brothers and best friend Eva to help out. But what begins as a joke quickly gets out of hand, and soon Viviani and her friends have to solve two big mysteries.

Canton, 1770. Shi Yu ha sei anni quando viene rapita dai pirati della ciurma del terribile Drago d’Oro che la arruola nell’equipaggio. È l’inizio della sua ascesa nel mondo della pirateria. A diciannove anni diventa comandante di un’intera flotta e il suo nome terrorizza il Mar della Cina. Ma la straordinaria fama di cui gode le ha creato un nemico tanto potente quanto misterioso… pronto a tutto per distruggerla. Un’avventura mozzafiato e un romanzo di formazione, ispirato alla storia vera di Ching Shih, che comandò la più grande flotta pirata di tutti i tempi.