The Secret of the Yellow Death; A True Story of Medical Sleuthing by Suzanne Jurmain

If you think you don't have to worry about Yellow Fever, think again in this era of Global Warming. It was called the yellow death and it was a feared killer. The United States army decided at the turn of the 1900s that they had to find what this killer was and how people got it since it was killing too many of its soliders. A team lead by Walter Reed - yes, that hospital is named after him, goes to Cuba to track the killer. Theories of how it was transmitted were tested and the one that most thought was the most outlandish and crazy may be the one, but how to test it out. Could you really pay someone to volunteer to get this killer? What type of person would volunteer but turn down all that money? If you enjoy a good whodunit, science, history, or just love reading about things that kill lots of people, this is the book for you.  Yellow Fever is still killing people around the world even with a vaccine if they can't afford it or the government can't afford to provide it.   

Ain't Nothing But a Man; My Quest to Find the REal John Henry by Scott Reynolds Nelson with Marc Aronson

I have read picture books about John Henry to students for over 30 years and never thought he might have been a real person like Johnny Appleseed was. He was just a legend like Paul Bunyan, but was he and how hard would the real story be to track down. If you like watching those programs on finding the truth, uncovering past injustice, and how awful United State's history can be for those not male, white, and Protestant, you will enjoy the tangled leads and how luck plays a roll in everything. Did Scott really find a picture of the real man? How did prison records that many wanted hidden help? You will even hear the real story of how the music your parents or grandparents called Rock and Roll got its name.

Wheels of Chance: How Women Rode the Bicycle to Freedom (with a few flat tires along the way) by Sue Macy

Maybe this book explains the real start of the modern women that think they can do anything they want the way they want. How could an invention that started out called bone shakers or penny fathings (very weird beginnings that you just have to see) could bring the wind of social change? Well, lets start with how you had to dress. Have you seen what type of clothing women had to wear? All the layers and how long it was. How about the freedom to ride away from male eyes that controlled their lives. Men worried that if women were allow to ride bicycles that maybe they would want to right to VOTE!!!! Oh, the horrors that our time period would bring to those guys. Did you know there were famous riders who people paid to see? For the guys, you will enjoy the history of our first attempt to find a way to not have to walk every where or clean up after the horses that hauled us around. It is just worth the look to see the period pictures. I bet you can't find those on Google images.

Courage Has No Color; The True Story of the Triple Nickles, American's First Black Paratroopers by Tanya Lee Stone

Have you ever felt the system is stack against you? Life is not fair? Sometimes, you just want to give up? Everyone has those thoughts at your age, but in modern America, most of the time, if you put in the work, you will get to your dreams. But what about those who lived earlier in our history, could those thoughts be true? How can you continue and not just give up? Character, inter-strength, determination to prove them wrong and, at times, guts are great answers. But a group of men proved that sometimes you just have to prove to those who think you are inferior that they are plain wrong can be the driving force. In their own words and photos, the brave men who dared to dream and put the hard work in, tell about how they broke the color barrier while the author will fill you in on the history. Be prepared to be angry at times, but you will also learn that how to rise above those who judge you.

Angel Island; Gateway to Gold Mountain by Russell Freedman

Why would anyone want to come to a place that requires a long and at times dangerous voyage only to end up not even being welcomed? Limited job opportunities and prejudice, that at times comes with violence, is a given. Hated enough for laws to be passed to limit their numbers and even stating their children could never become citizens. The answer was the American dream of a better life and the promise that being treated equally because of the Constitution will happen some day.

Angel Island is the Ellis Island of the West Coast, where most immigrants came into this country.  The stories of those who came and how they were treated will stick with you The author was not really planning to even tell this story, but a question to one of "those librarians" who pestered him with more information and pushing until he wrote the book.

Learn about how the fight for equal rights finally worked. Learn about what finally got the Island saved for us to visit. Learn about the famous Russian composer whose music you have heard could not even escape being detained there out of fear of what he might bring to our shore. Yes, our history does repeat itself when you don't read and understand the past. Are you brave enough to learn or will you join those who don't want to remember?

Lincoln's Grave Robbers by Steve Sheinkin

How does someone go from being a counterfeiter of money to being a grave robber? Maybe it involves being desperate or could it be stupidity? Big Jim Kennally thinks stealing Lincoln's body will solve all his problems, but he is in over his head and doesn't know it. The head of Chicago Secret Service has his sources so he is out to stop it. When both men's plans don't go as planned, it makes an interesting twisted tale that would be a great fiction book if it was not in the real history books. If you are ever interested in how counterfeiting is really done or the crazy method they come up with to keep Lincoln's body safe, you will enjoy this. Or maybe you just want to find out what a bone orchard is or why you might not want to be left there on a dark night.

Up Close: Frank Lloyd Wright by Jan Adkins

If he was alive today, talk show hosts would be fighting to get him to talk. The press would have a field day about his private life, but this man changed American architecture and he didn't even have a college education. His buildings were so wanted by people that he could get away with not listening to his clients and even staying in budget. The home you live in may have been different if not for his ideas. Look up Fallingwater  or the Guggenheim Museum or the Robie House or any other of his masterpieces online to see why. Maybe this is why he could be such a cad and still be designing buildings 65 years after he started.

Call of the Klondike: a True Gold Rush Adventure by David Meissner & Kim, Richardson

What would make sane men suddenly leave and travel to the cold up north at a time when our modern warm clothes did not exist even in their dreams? Was it the economy that was even worse than a few year ago? Or was it gold fever that seems to strike out of the blue? In their own words, Stanley Pearce and Marshall Bond tell about how they got their fathers to foot the bill so they could find their fortunes. Both were college educated and had mining backgrounds so they were able to get to the Klondike in northern Canada ahead of those who also watched miners bring a ship full of riches to Seattle. Real pictures from the time help you understand what really happened and the dangers they faced. What supplies did they need to survive and how hard was it getting there in the first place? Maybe part of the trail leading to the gold fields called Dead Horse may tell you part of the story. Can cold really freeze your nose and how could you not even know it? How did the book Call of the Wild get involved in all of this? Did they get rich? The bigger question is why sometimes you really need to lie to your mother and have to get away with it or else. If you are ready for a real life adventure where life and death get too close, enjoy this one.

Colonel Theordore Roosevelt by David A. Adler

If you saw the PBS documentary by Ken Burns about the Roosevelt family and want to find out more about one of the most unique characters that even Hollywood could not have thought up, you will enjoy this. Maybe I am a little biased since after watching the PBS show, my husband agrees that I am too much like him. What would cause his daughter Alice to say that her father "wanted to be the bride at every wedding and the corpse at every funeral?" Why would a senator be clearly upset enough to say "Now look, that damned cowboy is president of the United States?" Whatever he was, our country would be much different without him. If he was alive today, he would be still fighting some the same battles he fought years ago because he started most of them. But to really understand him,  you need to understand what made him the way he was. To do that, please read this book. To see why he is responsible for our way of life, click on the Biography label to find the other biography about him on this blog. I told you I had a little bias about him.

Etiquette & Espionage (Finishing School Book the First) by Gail Carriger

You think your parents don't understand you. Sophronia doesn't want to be like all the other young ladies in her world of 1851 England (if you watch Downton Abbey you may understand). When she finally gets her mother so angry, she is shipped off to a finishing school -Mademoiselle Geraldine's Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Qualities. That is the last place she wants to be, or so she thinks, but on her way she learns from her travel companions it is not your "normal" finishing school and she is what they call a covert recruit. As she is trying to find out what that is, the stagecoach is attacked by something you will not find in our history of England. This is only the start of surprises and quickly she learns that she may fit in more than she thought. If you think your teachers are weird, you have not met the faculty of this place. I would fit in easily. But there is a more pressing problem than learning how to curtsy and teatime manners while knowing how to hide the knife in your dress. Something has turned up missing and if the school doesn't hand it over, it might not be around much longer and its students may go with it. If you love a fast paced story full of the unexpected and humorous twists, this is for you. All I know is I want the pet dog she hides in her suite at school. I know I am a cat person, but I think that dog is the coolest dog in any book I have ever read. 

Lincoln's Flying Spries: Thaddeus Lowe and the Civil War Balloon Corps by Gail Jarrow

Before airplanes and satellites, armies still needed to know what each other were doing or even if they left under the cover of darkness. 150 years ago, balloons were the new high tech and brave (or stupid depending on your definition of those words) men rode high to do the spying. Thaddeus Lowe was the most famous and daring - he wanted to prove that he could take a balloon across the Atlantic Ocean but war broke out, so he volunteered to help the Union cause. How much trouble could a man in a balloon could get into? Being shot out of the air or being captured was a possibility any time you went up, but something else stopped them cold. Was it the technology that was lacking or was it humans' lack of vision?   When did the first aircraft carrier really exist? What were those "Quaker Guns" the balloons helped to find? (FYI - Quakers don't believe in war, so what is with those guns???) When did the first balloon trip happen across the Atlantic? Did those Confederates get their own balloon? How did Custer get involved with all of this? If you want the answers, keep reading this book.  If you have missed pictures in those books you have to read for school, you will enjoy the ones here.  They are really from the era so don't ask me why they are in black and white.

The Giant and How He Humbugged America by Jim Murphy

How you ever wondered how those who took other people's money by hook or crook did it? How did the crooks get those ideas and how did those who were tricked not know what was up? Is "too good to be true" really a clue or does something in ourselves make us suckers for these type of activities?  To learn how one of the biggest hoaxes in the late 1800s was pulled, we get a host of shady characters that you would not think were that smart, a mix of different kinds of beliefs that clash, and an example of the fact that when money is involved nothing is impossible. Even the famous P.T. Barnum gets involved. Learn how this hoax changed the way scientists and other academics did research and deemed things real.  For those of you who think we have all gotten too smart to fall for this, would you believe a very famous organization who has a television channel got fooled in the last 20 years?  You can even visit a copy of Cardiff Giant in Farmington Hills, MI. Just read the book to find out how.

Blizzard! by Jim Murphy

125 years ago this day, many people in New York city found themselves fighting to stay alive.

Without the modern weather forecasting we have today, no one saw it coming. Even other places in the Northeast were hit even harder.  Hurricane Sandy hit the coast with wind and water, but this blizzard was just as powerful and it lasted 3 days. Who will survive, the young woman trying to make to the city on the trian that use coal stoves to heat the cars, the lawyer who decides to walk the long blocks or the factory workers trying to get home? What about the animals? Horses pulled everything and how can they survive being outside in this storm? Life and death struggles that  we think could not happen today, but please read and learn from their mistakes. Mistakes in a blizzard could cost you. If you like the Weather Channel, you will love this.

Blizzard of Glass; The Halifax Explosion of 1917 by Sally Walker

If you look at the date on this post, it was on the 95th anniversary of the largest man-made explosion until the atom bomb was dropped 28 years later! How could something like  this happen? Take humans who knew better than anyone else, add nature's weather and harbor setup, and  maybe bad luck that set this tragic story in motion.  What happened to the sailors, parents, children, and workers that were in the way of the blast wave is not for the faint of heart. Just pick one of the kids on their way to school and see at the end if they lived though the day.  Can a school stand up to an explosion? How about a church? Did the fire kill your kid or did the kid even make it that far in the day? Remember that all the normal emergency help we take for granted today was not around in 1917. Even when help was sent from as far away as Boston, nature decided to take another shot at the survivors. This is not in your school history books, but maybe it should be. War doesn't just kill those on the front lines.

Witches! The Absolutely True Tale of Disaster in Salem by Rosalyn Schanzer

I know many of you have meat the MEAN Girls at your school, but wait until you met the ones in Salem. Was it the environment that made them that way? Or did some adults with an ax to grind use the girls to get even with those who had done them wrong? Even not being in Salem was not a way to be safe once this soap opera started. 20 people died, but many more died quicker than they would if the girls would have not started this. Were there any real witches there at all? If you enjoy a little horror for your Halloween or any time, just read this short little book. I just hope the History Channel doesn't make this true story into a show. Other shows you might have seen are tame compared to the ones you will imagine once you read this.

Close to Shore adapted by Michael Capuzzo

Since it is the start of summer, I want to share a book that explains the real story that was the basis of both the book and the movie called JAWS. If you never heard of either, just ask the adults in your life. I saw the movie in junior high and it was scary, but not as scary as the sharks that hunted unsuspecting swimmers in the waters in 1916. A Great White was killing where no shark could. How did it get that far inland? What about its friends munching on the swimmers near the most popular resorts? What could have caused all those attacks when that many have never been recorded before? What would your mother have done when the July 13, 1916 New York Tribune 's headline read "Shark Kills Man in Battle for Body of Boy; Cripples Another Lad Off Raritan Shore"? Never let you go swimming again? Would you have listened to her or your friends? All I know is that when I stepped into the Atlantic Ocean after JAWS, even my little sister yelled for me to get out. I think she just didn't want to see me get eaten in front of her, knowing my sister - the piggy one. Read this if you dare to learn what happened, who tried to cover it up, and why we are now more dangerous to sharks than they are to us.

The Great Fire by Jim Murphy

On October 8, 1871, the city of Chicago nearly burnt to the ground. The story you have heard, both in song and tales, is not the truth. Why poor Mrs. O'Leary was blamed made one of my former teen patrons in Detroit exclaim " You mean white people hate other white people too?" If you have enjoyed the episode that was part of the When Weather Changed History series or the one that was part of the Unsolved History series, you need to read this. Every good story has heroes, villains, and those who are hard to put in either category. Those who narrowly escaped lived to tell the tales, but it takes science and detective work to tell about those who didn't. Reading the real words of those who survived and seeing the pictures and drawings makes you wonder if this could happen again. Will it happen again? Those living at that time had the most modern equipment of the day to fight fires. But when fire makes it own weather and the city's resources are stretched by cuts and closings, you will need to read this moving true story to make up your mind.

Poop Happened by Sarah Albee

Which is more important to your life: Cellphones, computers or flush toilets? Before you answer that, stop and think what the world would be like without the other choice. If you didn't make your choice the flush toilet, you really need to read this book. If you did, you will still enjoy this take on world history. Where did the crowds go when nature called and they were at the games in Rome? Why could you smell some towns miles away? What do delousers, gongfermors, and fullers really do for a living and would you take that job if that was the only way you might earn money to live? Why do we have cholera to thank for our modern government? Maybe you can teach your teachers a few facts about the ancient country you are studying. Just don't blame me if you get detention from your addition to the curriculum. But please, don't decide that people living in the Middle Ages had the right idea about taking baths for your fellow students' sake.

Truce by Jim Murphy

When I was growing up, there was a saying "what if they gave a war and no one showed up". This book is about the true story of the Christmas Truce on the front line during World War I, the war to end all wars (yes, they believed that at the time). On Christmas eve in 1914, the troops on both sides heard the other side singing Christmas Carols and once they realized they were singing the same ones, only in different languages, some how the mood changed. Some one took a chance with a white flag to cross the no man zone to ask for a truce for Christmas. The Truce spread up and down the line and in some parts lasted a lot longer than just Christmas. Somehow the game of soccer was involved in that. Why these soldiers did this makes compelling reading. This book doesn't pull any punches about the horrors of the war and the worries of the higher command that if this type of behavior was not stopped, the war would. It is recorded in history that Hitler's reaction to this Christmas truce caused him to do things that made World War II even worst than it could have been.

Soup by Robert Newton Peck

Don't miss this just because it is an old book, but if you read it , please don't try any of the pranks on your friends and family. Based on the author's own growing years, Rob learns sometime following your best friend's ideas of fun can get you in more trouble than what your worst enemy's ideas would. Whether it is whipping apples at a church or tying up your aunt, things never seem to work out as planned. Life was so much more fun when the grown ups didn't worry about where the kids were unless they missed 2 meals or didn't make it home before dark. Life back then also included the dreaded bully, but you have to read the book to see who was the most feared bully in school. You will be surprised to see who it was.