Showing results by publisher "Recorded Books" in North America

George Scott peered at the nearby Union fortress. Something miraculous was taking place! Three enslaved men had entered but had not been cast out. To Scott, the fortress must be a sanctuary. A place where the three would be safe from capture and harm—never to return to the Confederate South. But exactly why were they granted refuge?  

Today, everyone is familiar with Neil Armstrong's famous words as he first set foot on the moon: "one small step for man; one giant leap for mankind." But America's journey to the moon was anything but simple. In 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the world's first satellite, into orbit; later that year, America's first attempt was such a failure that the media nicknamed it "Kaputnik." Still, we didn't give up. With each failure, we gleaned valuable information about what went wrong, and how to avoid it in the future. So we tried again. And again. And each time we failed, we failed a little bit better.

Madam C. J. Walker was beloved within her community for her philanthropy and expanding the local black YMCA, but she couldn't have done that if she weren't the first female self-made millionaire and one of the most successful African American business owners ever. Born Sarah Breedlove, she was the first person born free in her family. She married Charles Joseph Walker and became known as Madam C. J. Walker, the name she would later use on her haircare products. 

During the summer of 1944, a secretive network of German officers and civilians conspired to assassinate Adolf Hitler. But their plot to attack the dictator at his Wolf’s Lair compound failed, and an enraged Hitler demanded revenge. The result was a systematic rampage of punishment that ensnared not only those who had tried to topple the regime but their far-flung family members, too. Within weeks, Gestapo agents had taken as many as 200 relatives from their homes, separating adults and children.   

When Frank Thompson sees a poster requesting recruits for the new Union army, he is ready and willing to enlist. Except Frank isn’t his real name. In fact, Frank isn’t a man—he is really Sarah Emma Edmonds. At only nineteen years old, Sarah had already been dressing as a man for three years and living on the run in order to escape an arranged marriage. She had tasted freedom, and there was no going back.

One of the founders of US cryptology who would eventually become one of the world’s greatest code breakers, Elizebeth Smith Friedman (1892-1980) was a brilliant mind behind many important battles throughout the 20th century, saving many lives through her intelligence and heroism. Whip-smart and determined, Elizebeth displayed a remarkable aptitude for language and recognizing patterns from a young age.

Although Orville and Wilbur Wright are celebrated today as heroes for their revolutionary contributions to science and engineering - they are acknowledged as the first men to successfully achieve powered, piloted flight - their success was hard-earned. In fact, it took the self-taught engineers years of work and dozens of crashes before they managed a single 12-second flight! In this first installment of the brand new Epic Fails series, Ben Thompson and Erik Slader take listeners through the Wright brothers' many mishaps and misadventures as they paved the way for modern aviation.

The unbelievable true story of pilot Douglas Corrigan, who took off from New York to fly to California, but landed in Ireland instead. On July 17, 1938, American pilot Douglas Corrigan took off from New York City’s Floyd Bennett Field for a long-haul trip. He had 320 gallons of gas in a...

Throughout his life, George Washington maintained a curiosity about the world and a thirst for knowledge. His quest as a lifelong learner was exemplified by the evolution of his thinking about slavery, shaped by religious leaders and his dear friend the Marquis de Lafayette. A complicated man, Washington enslaved many people at his family plantation, while simultaneously helping to build a democracy intended for “all the people.”

Through persistence and hard work, Louisa May Alcott goes from a little girl writing in her “Imagination Book” to the world-renowned author of Little Women. This nonfiction book will inspire creativity and spark interest in writing for kids ages 7–10. Louisa May Alcott wrote the beloved...

Here is the story of Henrietta Wood, who was enslaved twice—but who demanded justice and was awarded the largest reparations ever granted for enslavement. This nonfiction book for ages 9–12 puts a human face on the current issue of reparations. Henrietta Wood was born enslaved. As a teen she...

When North and South met in 1865 at Appomattox Court House to end the Civil War, the official terms of surrender weren’t written in the hand of Ulysses S. Grant, Robert E. Lee, or any white soldier. Instead, this momentous event was recorded by General Ely S. Parker, a member of the Seneca (Iroquois) tribe. At that time, Parker was not only the highest-ranking Native American in the Union Army but also the Grand Sachem, or chief representative, of the Haudenosaunee—the powerful Iroquois Confederacy.

In 2008 Chicago, in the Southside community of Washington Park, Montgomery “Monty” Carver had hopes for the best summer ever! Unfortunately, things aren’t going as planned. Monty is struggling to prove to his parents that he’s old enough to be without adult supervision—especially after a very embarrassing incident with a metal detector. Man! So when Monty finds a golden key in Old Lady Jenkins’s sunflowers, he decides he’s going to unravel the key’s mystery all by himself, thank you very much. No parents allowed. 

From the intrusion of white settlers into Lakota territory, to the treaties signed with the U.S. government, and to the many subsequent battles, Red Cloud explains how the Lakota became the only nation to win a war against the U.S. Army on American soil. However, unlike fellow warriors Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull, Red Cloud eventually came to accept the inevitable advance of white civilization. He submitted to change and moved his followers onto a reservation.

In Spanish Florida during the nineteenth century, one man shaped the course of Black Seminoles—descendants of Seminole Indians and free Blacks and escaped slaves—more than any other. A political and military leader of both Seminole and African heritage, John Horse valiantly defended his people from slave hunters, other tribes, and the U.S. government. After fighting in the Second Seminole War—one of the longest and most costly Native American conflicts in United States history—Horse negotiated territory for the Black Seminoles and became a guide and interpreter.

Famous founding father Benjamin Franklin was a proud subject of the British Empire—until he wasn’t. It took nearly seventy years and seven not-so-easy steps to turn Benjamin Franklin from a loyal British subject to a British traitor—and a fired-up American revolutionary. In this light, whimsical narrative, young listeners learn how Franklin came to be a rebel, beginning with his childhood lesson in street smarts when he buys a whistle at an inflated price

Joseph Pulitzer always loved the word liberty. It’s no surprise that when he first saw Lady Liberty’s head in Paris, Pulitzer shared sculptor Auguste Bartholdi’s dream of seeing France’s gift of friendship stand in New York’s harbor. Frustrated that Americans, especially wealthy New Yorkers, were not interested in paying for the statue’s pedestal, Pulitzer used his newspaper, the World, to call on all Americans to contribute. This is the inspiring story of how one immigrant brought together young and old, rich and poor, to raise funds for a pedestal for the Statue of Liberty.

Acclaimed nonfiction writer and Sibert Honor winner Gail Jarrow begins her new series on medical fiascoes with an in-depth look at the bloodiest conflict in U.S. history. The Civil War took the lives of more than 600,000 men. Bullet wounds were deadly, but twice as many soldiers died from disease—pneumonia, diarrhea, typhoid fever, measles, and smallpox. Tens of thousands who survived the war were permanently disabled or disfigured. Yet out of this tragedy came medical progress. Doctors and nurses gained valuable experience treating the injured and sick.

Jacob Riis was determined to improve the living conditions of the poor—to fill their dark, ramshackle places with sunlight and soft, green grass. Places where children could play. After immigrating to New York City and working as a news reporter, Jacob was deeply affected by the poverty surrounding him, especially in the tenements.

In 1859, the British and Americans coexist on the small island of San Juan, located off the coast of the Pacific Northwest. They are on fairly good terms—until one fateful morning when an innocent hog owned by a British man has the misfortune to eat some potatoes on an American farmer's land. In a moment of rash anger, Lyman Cutlar shoots Charles Griffin's pig, inadvertently almost bringing the two nations to war. Tensions flare, armies gather, cannons are rolled out . . . all because of a pig!