Texas Topaz Nonfiction Reading List

From the copper canyons of Mexico her swift footsteps echo. Clip clap, clip clap. Experience a 60-mile run with indigenous athlete Lorena Ramirez, who captured the world's attention when she won an ultramarathon in Mexico wearing a skirt and rubber sandals-the traditional clothes of the Raramuri, "the light-footed people."

Sky gazers experience a total solar eclipse in this descriptive picture book about the wonders of this phenomenon.

Strong, smooth domes, skulls are more than remnants of creatures that used to be. They are artifacts that allow us to travel back through time. Every ridge, hollow, and crevice of a skull reveals something about an animal's habitat, food source, and skill set. By observing the characteristics of six different animal skulls, readers can learn about the lives once led by a lynx, a deer, a beaver, a hummingbird, a wolf, and an owl.

Nurse logs are tiny ecosystems with hundreds of rare and important life forms. When old trees fall to the forest floor, they can take centuries to decompose, helping all sorts of organism for hundreds of years. They provide nutrients for tree seedlings, hideaways for small animals, shelters for the winter, and protection from the elements.

What can smell like bubble gum, glow neon green at night, be poisonous and yet still eaten by humans, and even help create rain? The answer is mushrooms! Through lyrical text and colorful detailed artwork, the wonderful, mysterious, and sometimes bizarre.

The story of the composer John Cage's famous composition of four minutes and 33 seconds of empty sheet music, and its first performance by the pianist David Tudor.

Hummingbirds and giraffes, sharks and snails, meerkats and bees -- at first glance, these pairings may seem as different as, well, hummingbirds and giraffes, sharks and snails, meerkats and bees. But guess what? Hummingbirds and giraffes are both hummers, sharks and snails both have mouths full of thousands of sharp teeth, and meerkats and bees are both huggers. - That's just 3 of the 8 unexpected animal pairs readers will discover in this informative and entertaining book. - Each odd couple is introduced on an initial spread that has a quick fact about each animal and asks the question, "What could this odd couple have in common?" The question is answered on a second spread that includes expanded descriptions of the behavior or adaptation that the animals share. - The book's final pairing includes a diverse group of sweet-looking young humans and readers discover in what way we are like koalas. (Answer: We both have fingerprints. In fact, our fingerprints are so similar that even experts can have a hard time telling them apart!). Includes a glossary of terms.

Across the animal kingdom, there are a whole lot of ways animals snooze. Different species have their own fascinating sleep patterns and habits.

A picture book about a sea turtle named Yoshi who has traveled further than any other living animal.

The story of the world's most famous diamonds -- stolen from South Asia during colonization and now among the crown jewels in London -- is a call to action for readers to decolonize and hold their heads high.

High above the bustling streets and gardens of Paris is a little-known wonder: a cluster of beehives. They sit atop the roof of the Notre-Dame cathedral, lovingly tended to by a beekeeper named Sibyle. But when fire broke out in the cathedral in 2019, the bees almost didn't make it. Firefighters battled heat and smoke, carefully spraying their hoses around the hives, pumping in water from fire boats on the Seine, and, miraculously, they survived.

Discover the true story of the race between two paleontologists, O. C. Marsh and Edward Cope, to find dinosaur fossils in this nonfiction picture book.

How do you breathe underwater? What tools can we use to go deeper and deeper into the oceans? And--what's down there? Two-thirds of our Earth is covered in ocean, yet only 5% of it has been explored. Dive deep into our long history of sea exploration to learn why, how, and when humans have dived, and uncover our biggest questions about what hides in the Earth's deepest waters.

This first picture book biography of Erno Rubik, creator of the Rubik's Cube, reveals the obsession, imagination, and engineering process behind the creation of a bestselling puzzle that will celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2024.

When Fannie Farmer learned to cook in the late 1800s, recipes could be pretty silly. They might call for "a goodly amount of salt" or "a lump of butter" or "a suspicion of nutmeg." Girls were supposed to use their "feminine instincts" in the kitchen (or maybe just guess). Despite this problem, Fannie loved cooking, so when polio prevented her from going to college, she became a teacher at the Boston Cooking School. Unlike her mother or earlier cookbook writers, Fannie didn't believe in feminine instincts. To her, cooking was a science. She'd noticed that precise measurements and specific instructions ensured that cakes rose instead of flopped and doughnuts fried instead of burned. Students liked Fannie's approach so much that she wrote a cookbook.

A picture book biography of Georgia O'Keeffe, with an emphasis on her sustainable homestead in Abiquiu, New Mexico.

The uplifting true story of Minda Dentler, the first female wheelchair athlete to complete the Ironman World Championship triathlon.

Ever since mysterious bones were found in 1822, scientists and artists have tried to figure out what the creature they came from looked like. But it seems that every time they've made up their minds, someone makes a discovery, and they have to start all over. That's only fair, though--after all, it's how knowledge advances! With an inviting tone and detail-filled art, Sean Rubin traces the process of defining--and redefining--the dinosaur called Iguanodon. Entertaining, accessible, and beautiful, his tale will delight dinosaur fans, budding artists, and anyone curious about how science works.

When a terrible earthquake hit Haiti in 2010, chef José Andrés knew he needed to help. Within a few hours of the disaster, he had gathered friends, they flew to the island, and they began cooking rice and beans for the hungry locals. This trip changed the life of the successful chef and led him to found World Central Kitchen, a disaster-relief organization that has fed more than 200 million people affected by natural disasters, the COVID pandemic, and war.

Lucy was not a proper little girl. She was sassy. She was bold. She was funny. She was a rule-breaking, chance-taking, comedy pioneer. Can't act? Can't sing? Can't dance? Lucy proves them all wrong - and then has the last laugh when she finally lets her inner funny girl shine. In 1951, the hit show I Love Lucy took television by storm and has made millions laugh ever since. Lucy! is the true story of how Lucille Ball overcame the odds to become the world's Queen of Comedy.

The book's introduction puts canine senses into evolutionary perspective and includes theories about the origin of today's dogs. Each of the following five chapters opens with a real-life canine anecdote and goes on to examine one of the five main senses, explaining canine senses from both an evolutionary and scientific perspective. A concluding chapter explores whether or not dogs have senses that people do not and includes a round-up that compares the performance of dog and human senses. Sidebars throughout the book feature additional interesting facts and hands-on activities that let readers experience a dog's sensory abilities for themselves. The backmatter includes suggestions for further reading, a glossary, and an index.

Star Trek actor, activist, and author George Takei shares his empowering and moving story about growing up in Japanese American incarceration camps during WWII.

A collection of illustrated poems about everything from new shoes and falling leaves to friendship and growing up.

Leona Tate, Gail Etienne, and Tessie Prevost didn't set out to make history. But when these three Black first graders stepped into the all-white McDonogh No. 19 Public School in New Orleans on November 14, 1960, that's exactly what they did. They integrated their school just ten minutes before Ruby Bridges walked into her school, also in New Orleans. Like Ruby, the trio faced crowds of protestors fighting against public school desegregation efforts and relied on US Marshals to keep them safe. Their teacher protected them every step of the way, and the girls formed a close bond, becoming friends for life. Award-winning author Vaunda Micheaux Nelson conducted extensive interviews to bring this little-known story from the Civil Rights Movement to a broad audience. Vivid illustrations by fine artist Alex Bostic highlight the girls' strength, courage, and determination.

A picture book biography about Georgia Gilmore, the woman whose cooking helped feed and fund the Montgomery bus boycott of 1956.

Young Thomas Jefferson loved to measure the natural world: plants and animals, mountains and streams, crops and weather. With a notepad in his pocket, he constantly examined, experimented, and explored. He dreamed of making great discoveries like the well-known scientific author, Count Georges-Louis Leclerc de Buffon. But when Buffon published an encyclopedia of the natural world, Jefferson was furious! According to the French count, America was cold and swampy, and filled with small and boring animals, nothing like the majestic creatures of the OId World. Jefferson knew Buffon had never even been to America. Where had Buffon gotten his information? Had he cherry-picked the facts to suit his arguments? Was he biased in favor of Europe? How could Jefferson prove Buffon wrong? By using scientific inquiry, of course! This first picture book to emphasize Jefferson's use of scientific methods is an accessible and entertaining approach to a lesser-known side of Jefferson.

With warm and heart-fluttering illustrations, discover the next nonfiction picture book about butterflies and moths from the creator of the New York Times bestseller Women in Science!

The autobiographical story of Billy Mills, an Oglala Lakota orphan who achieved his dream of winning a gold medal as a runner in the 1964 Olympics despite racism, poverty, and debilitating health challenges.

World of Rot takes readers on a deep dive into the process of decay, from the science behind it to an up-close and personal look at the organisms that do the dirty work to make our planet livable. With a touch of humor and quirky full-color illustrations, kids will learn about the life-recycling system happening all around us-in the sea, in the soil, and even inside our own bodies.

This revolutionary dictionary-thesaurus hybrid puts more than 750 high-level, wondrous, and wacky words in fun, engaging, and hilarious context.

The attack on Pearl Harbor unfolds through the actions and perspectives of American, Japanese, and Hawaiian leaders, soldiers, sailors, nurses, and civilians.

From Popsicles and swim fins to robots and glitter shooting prosthetics, this middle grade nonfiction debut is full of fun and inspiring stories about real kid inventors and some of their most amazing inventions.

Mountain of Fire is the narrative nonfiction story of the violent volcanic eruption of Mount St. Helens on May 18, 1980, the story of the people who died, those who survived, and the heroes who fought to raise an alarm. For weeks, the ground around Mount St. Helens shuddered like a dynamite keg ready to explode. There were legends of previous eruptions: violent fire, treacherous floods, and heat that had scoured the area. But the shaking and swelling was unlike any volcano ever seen before. Day and night,scientists tried to piece together the mountain's clues-yet nothing could prepare them for the destruction to come. The long-dormant volcano seethed away, boiling rock far below the surface. Washington's governor, Dixie Lee Ray, understood the despair that would follow from people being forced from their homes. How and when should she give orders to evacuate the area? And would that be enough to save the people from the eruption of Mount St. Helens?

Pan Cooke is ten years old when anxious thoughts begin to take over his brain like pieces of an impossible puzzle. What if he blurts out a swear word while in church? What if he accidentally writes something mean in his classmate's get-well card? What if his friend's racy photo of a supermodel ends up in his own homework and is discovered by his teacher? More and more, he becomes hijacked by fears that can only be calmed through exhausting, time-consuming rituals. Pan has no way of knowing that this anxiety puzzle and the stressful attempts to solve it are evidence of a condition called Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. This is his story of living with and eventually learning about OCD.

Dives into the scientific and cultural history of the waste humans produce, examining why we make so much trash, why we're so bad at handling it, and how we can stop it (that is, us) from ruining the planet.

Ruth Chan recounts in graphic novel form how her family moved from Toronto to Hong Kong and how she dealt with the change with her father's stories of how her family survived difficult circumstances.

A deep-dive exploration into the many theories and discoveries surrounding the possibility of extraterrestrial life beyond Earth.

A celebration of the unheralded people and stories that helped shape the game of basketball, from unsung pioneers to unforgettable moments of the game.

A city ruined. In once quiet residential streets, two armies battle, driving people into cellars and basements with little food or water. No lights or heat. Dwindling medical supplies. Shells and bullets deliver cruel, random death to the young and old, men, women, and children. This is Mariupol, a Ukrainian city and early target of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Bordering Russian-occupied territory, the coastal city seemed doomed to a defeat that would come within days, if not hours. Could Mariupol, and Ukraine, survive? As Russian rockets threatened the city, Ukrainians resisted, and with a heroic combination of sacrifice and bravery, the besieged city endured. But it all came at a steep cost. 83 Days in Mariupol reminds us that the bloody defiance shown at The Alamo, Dunkirk, Leningrad, and Thermopylae isn't confined to the past but has a violent, modern presence. It is the story of senseless destruction, patriotism, and grit against long odds--a brutal battle whose consequences still reverberate across Ukraine and continue to reshape the global political landscape.

America Redux explores the themes that create our shared sense of American identity and interrogates the myths we've been telling ourselves for centuries. With iconic American catchphrases as chapter titles, these twenty-one visual stories illuminate the astonishing, unexpected, sometimes darker sides of history that reverberate in our society to this very day--from the role of celebrity in immigration policy to the influence of one small group of white women on education to the effects of 'progress' on housing and the environment, to the inspiring force of collective action and mutual aid across decades and among diverse groups.

Moving and evocative, this YA memoir-in-verse follows author Jiordan Castle's coming-of-age as her family reckons with the aftershocks of her father's imprisonment.

"You are to report to Station X at Bletchley Park, Buckinghamshire, in four days...That is all you need to know." This was the terse telegram hundreds of young women throughout the British Isles received in the spring of 1941, as World War II raged. As they arrived at Station X, a sprawling mansion in a state of disrepair surrounded by Spartan-looking huts with little chimneys coughing out thick smoke -- these young people had no idea what kind of work they were stepping into. Who had recommended them? Why had they been chosen? Most would never learn all the answers to these questions. Bletchley Park was a well-kept secret during World War II, operating under the code name Station X. The critical work of code-cracking Nazi missives that went on behind its closed doors could determine a victory or loss against Hitler's army. Amidst the brilliant cryptographers, flamboyant debutantes, and absent-minded professors working there, it was teenaged girls who kept Station X running. Some could do advanced math, while others spoke a second language. They ran the unwieldy bombe machines, made sense of wireless sound waves, and sorted the decoded messages. They were expected to excel in their fields and most importantly: know how to keep a secret.

A true story of two Jewish teenagers racing against time during the Holocaust: one in hiding in Hungary, and the other in Auschwitz, plotting escape.

Loch Ness Uncovered is an extensively researched, myth-busting account of the world's most famous monster hoax--the Loch Ness Monster--and a cautionary tale on the dangers of misinformation.

Marked Man tells the propulsive story of Frank Serpico who, in the 1960s, single-handedly rooted out systematic corruption in the New York Police Department. Since the NYPD was formed in 1845, the famous "pad" was as much a criminal ring as it was a legitimate police force. As the decades wore on, corruption became so out of hand that cops were regularly demanding payments from brothels, bars, pool halls, and gambling joints to keep them out of trouble with the law. It was a multimillion-dollar-a-year business that everyone seemed to turn a blind eye to. Everyone, that is, except Frank Serpico. Delve into this true story of corruption and greed, of the dark history of the largest police department in the US, and the price one man pays for doing what he thinks is right. Perfect for fans of Steve Sheinkin and Rebecca Barone, Marked Man is a dive into one man's courageous fight against a corrupt system.

Dan SaSuWeh Jones brings to light the forced assimilation and cultural erasure of Indigenous people by government-run residential schools with first-person accounts that breaks down the truth of America's hidden past.Scholastic Focus is the premier home of thoroughly researched, beautifully written, and thoughtfully designed works of narrative nonfiction aimed at middle grade and young adult readers. These books help readers learn about the world in which they live and develop their critical thinking skills so that they may become dynamic citizens who are able to analyze and understand our past, participate in essential discussions about our present, and work to grow and build our future.

Tells the story of a 1920s midwife in rural Hungary who may have been the century's most prolific killer, leading a murder ring of women responsible for the deaths of at least one hundred sixty men.

The tragic story of the British airship R101-which went down in a spectacular hydrogen-fueled fireball in 1930, killing more people than died in the Hindenburg disaster seven years later-has been largely forgotten. In His Majesty's Airship, historian S.C. Gwynne resurrects it in vivid detail, telling the epic story of great ambition gone terribly wrong. Airships, those airborne leviathans that occupied center stage in the world in the first half of the twentieth century, were a symbol of the future. R101 was not just the largest aircraft ever to have flown and the product of the world's most advanced engineering-she was also the lynchpin of an imperial British scheme to link by air the far-flung areas of its empire from Australia to India, South Africa, Canada, Egypt, and Singapore. No one had ever conceived of anything like this. R101 captivated the world. There was just one problem: beyond the hype and technological wonders, these big, steel-framed, hydrogen-filled airships were a dangerously bad idea. Gwynne's chronicle features a cast of remarkable--and often tragically flawed--characters, including Lord Christopher Thomson, the man who dreamed up the Imperial Airship Scheme and then relentlessly pushed R101 to her destruction; Princess Marthe Bibesco, the celebrated writer and glamorous socialite with whom he had a long affair; and Herbert Scott, a national hero who had made the first double crossing of the Atlantic in any aircraft in 1919--eight years before Lindbergh's famous flight--but who devolved into drink and ruin. These historical figures--and the ship they built, flew, and crashed--come together in a grand tale that details the rocky road to commercial aviation written by one of the best popular historians writing today.

A long-time Austinite and journalist's exploration of the profound movements that have shaped Austin, Texas--charting the shifts within its vibrant music scene, the impact of rapid urbanization, and the challenges of gentrification--ultimately questioning what this city's transformation signals for American urban identity.

From his acclaimed stage triumphs to his legendary onscreen work in the Star Trek and X-Men franchises, Sir Patrick Stewart has captivated audiences around the world and across multiple generations with his indelible command of stage and screen. Now, he presents his long-awaited memoir, Making It So, a revealing portrait of an artist whose astonishing life--from his humble beginnings in Yorkshire, England, to the heights of Hollywood and worldwide acclaim--proves a story as exuberant, definitive, and enduring as the author himself.

Set against the glittering backdrop of Los Angeles during the gin-soaked Jazz Age and the rise of Hollywood, this debut book celebrates Anna May Wong, the first Asian American movie star, to bring an unsung heroine to light and reclaim her place in cinema history.

Elmer Wayne Henley, Jr. was only fourteen when he first became entangled with serial rapist and murderer Dean Corll in 1971. Fellow Houston, Texas, teenager David Brooks had already been ensnared by the charming older man, bribed with cash to help lure boys to Corll's home. When Henley unwittingly entered the trap, Corll sensed he'd be of more use as a second accomplice than another victim. He baited Henley with the same deal he'd given Brooks: $200 for each boy they could bring him. Henley didn't understand the full extent of what he had signed up for at first. But once he started, Corll convinced him that he had crossed the line of no return and had to not only procure boys but help kill them and dispose of the bodies, as well. When Henley first took a life, he lost his moral base. He felt doomed. By the time he was seventeen, he'd helped with multiple murders and believed he'd be killed, too. But on August 8, 1973, he picked up a gun and shot Corll. When he turned himself in, Henley showed police where he and Brooks had buried Corll's victims in mass graves. Twenty-eight bodies were recovered--most of them boys from Henley's neighborhood--making this the worst case of serial murder in America at the time. The case reveals gross failures in the way cops handled parents' pleas to look for their missing sons and how law enforcement possibly protected a larger conspiracy. The Serial Killer's Apprentice tells the story of Corll and his accomplices in its fullest form to date. It also explores the concept of "mur-dar" (the predator's instinct for exploitable kids), current neuroscience about adolescent brain vulnerabilities, the role of compartmentalization, the dynamic of a murder apprenticeship, and how tales like Henley's can aid with early intervention. Despite his youth and cooperation, Henley went to trial and received six life sentences. He's now sixty-five and has a sense of perspective about how adult predators can turn formerly good kids into criminals. Unexpectedly, he's willing to talk. This book is his warning and the story of the unspeakable evil and sorrow that befell Houston in the early 1970s.

The forgotten story of a pioneering group of five Black ballerinas, the first principals in the Dance Theatre of Harlem, who traveled the world as highly celebrated stars in their field and whose legacy was erased from history until now. At the height of the Civil Rights movement, Lydia Abarça was a Black prima ballerina with a major international dance company-the Dance Theatre of Harlem. She was the first Black ballerina on the cover of Dance magazine, an Essence cover star, cast in The Wiz and on Broadway with Bob Fosse. She performed in some of ballet's most iconic works with her closest friends-founding members of the company, the Swans of Harlem, Gayle McKinney, Sheila Rohan, Marcia Sells, and Karlya Shelton-for the Queen of England and Mick Jagger, with Josephine Baker, at the White House, and beyond. Some forty years later, when Lydia's granddaughter wanted to show her own ballet class evidence of her grandmother's success, she found almost none, but for some yellowing photographs and programs in the family basement. Lydia had struggled for years to reckon with the erasure of her success, as all the Swans had. Still united as sisters in the present, they decided it was time to share their story themselves.

On January 28, 1742, a ramshackle vessel of patched-together wood and cloth washed up on the coast of Brazil. Inside were thirty emaciated men, barely alive, and they had an extraordinary tale to tell. They were survivors of His Majesty's Ship the Wager, a British vessel that had left England in 1740 on a secret mission during an imperial war with Spain. While the Wager had been chasing a Spanish treasure-filled galleon known as "the prize of all the oceans," it had wrecked on a desolate island off the coast of Patagonia. The men, after being marooned for months and facing starvation, built the flimsy craft and sailed for more than a hundred days, traversing 2500 miles of storm-wracked seas. They were greeted as heroes. But then ... six months later, another, even more decrepit craft landed on the coast of Chile. This boat contained just three castaways, and they had a very different story to tell. The thirty sailors who landed in Brazil were not heroes - they were mutineers. The first group responded with countercharges of their own, of a tyrannical and murderous captain and his henchmen. It became clear that while stranded on the island the crew had fallen into anarchy, with warring factions fighting for dominion over the barren wilderness. As accusations of treachery and murder flew, the Admiralty convened a court martial to determine who was telling the truth. The stakes were life-and-death-for whomever the court found guilty could hang. The Wager is a grand tale of human behavior at the extremes told by one of our greatest nonfiction writers. Grann's recreation of the hidden world on a British warship rivals the work of Patrick O'Brian, his portrayal of the castaways' desperate straits stands up to the classics of survival writing such as The Endurance, and his account of the court martial has the savvy of a Scott Turow thriller. As always with Grann's work, the incredible twists of the narrative hold the reader spellbound. Most powerfully, he unearths the deeper meaning of the events, showing that it was not only the Wager's captain and crew who were on trial - it was the very idea of empire.

In his own voice and uniquely unpretentious style, the famed actor brings readers on his uncharted but serendipitous journey to the top in Hollywood, his temptations and distractions, his misfires and mistakes and, over time, his well-earned success. Along the way, he clears up an armload of misconceptions and shares dozens of never-told stories from all corners of his personal and professional life. His rambunctious California childhood. His clueless arrival as a good-looking college jock in Hollywood (from the Dating Game to the Fox New Talent Program to co-starring with Mae West and escorting her to black-tie social functions). What it was like to emerge as a mega-star in his mid-thirties and remain so for decades to come, an actor whose authenticity and ease in front of the camera connected with audiences worldwide while embodying and also redefining the clichés of onscreen manhood. In You Never Know, Selleck recounts his personal friendships with a vivid army of A-listers, everyone from Frank Sinatra to Carol Burnett to Sam Elliott, paying special tribute to his mentor James Garner of The Rockford Files, who believed, like Selleck, that TV protagonists are far more interesting when they have rough edges. He also more than tips his hat to the American western and the scruffy band of actors, directors and other ruffians who helped define that classic genre, where Selleck has repeatedly found a happy home. Magnum fans will be fascinated to learn how Selleck put his career on the line to make Thomas Magnum a more imperfect hero and explains why he walked away from a show that could easily have gone on for years longer. Hollywood is never easy, even for stars who make it look that way. In You Never Know, Selleck explains how he's struggled to balance his personal and professional lives, frequently adjusting his career to protect his family's privacy and normalcy. His journey offers a truly fresh perspective on a changing industry and a changing world. Beneath all the charm and talent and self-deprecating humor, Selleck's memoir reveals an American icon who has reached remarkable heights by always insisting on being himself.