National Network for Equitable Library Service

"An inspiring story of resilience, told with a vivid sense of character and humour." —RICHARD CROUSE, CTV host and film critic Film critic, writer, and broadcaster Thom Ernst chronicles his life growing up with an abusive father in rural Ontario. The residents of Waubamik know about the Wild Boy, a somewhat feral child, standing nearly naked in a rusty playground of weeds and discarded metal, clutching a headless doll. They know the boy has been plucked from poverty and resettled into a middle-class family. But they don't know that something worse awaits him there.

When Anne Innis saw her first giraffe in a zoo, she was entranced. So much so that a love for giraffes shaped her whole life. She decided at a young age that she would one day travel from her home in Canada to study giraffes in their natural environment in Africa. After overcoming obstacles to doing so based on her gender, Anne succeeded in fulfilling her dream in 1956 and became the world's leading scientific expert on giraffes. Gender discrimination then interfered with her ability to share her passionate interest and her knowledge with students.

7-year-old Sophia Spencer was bullied for loving bugs until hundreds of women scientists rallied around her. Now Sophie tells her inspiring story in this picture book that celebrates women in science, bugs of all kinds and the importance of staying true to yourself. Sophia Spencer has loved bugs ever since a butterfly landed on her shoulder—and wouldn't leave!—at a butterfly conservancy when she was only two-and-a-half years old. In preschool and kindergarten, Sophia was thrilled to share what she knew about grasshoppers (her very favorite insects), as well as ants and fireflies . . .

Perfect for fans of STEM, this inspiring picture book biography tells the extraordinary story of pioneering astronomer Maria Mitchell. Maria longed to travel beyond her island of Nantucket. But how? Her father taught her that if you know how to read the stars, they can tell you where you need to go. They spent hours scanning the sky. Maria learned to use astronomers' tools to measure and track stars. But what could she do with her skills? Then one day, she heard that a prize was being offered to the first person to find a new comet. Could this be the opportunity she was waiting for?

This beautiful Spanish-language book, translated from the hugely popular Little People, BIG DREAMS series, can be enjoyed by fluent Spanish speakers and those learning the language, whether at home or in the classroom. En este libro de la serie BIG DREAMS, aclamada por la crítica y superventas de millones de copias, Little People, descubra la vida de Mary Anning, la madre de la paleontología y audaz cazadora de fósiles. Cuando Mary era pequeña, su familia era muy pobre. Solía ​​ayudar a su padre a buscar conchas y huesos en lo alto de peligrosos acantilados.

Rita Winkler is a young woman living with Down syndrome. My Art, My World shows us the world as she sees it: a place full of joy, color, and the delight of life with her family and friends. Approaching her daily life with enthusiasm and a dry sense of humor, Rita rides public transit to her job working at a university coffee shop. She takes yoga and folk dance classes and enjoys drama and music at a day program, and she continues to practice using sign language. Rita's great passion is making art. Here she shows her love for the world in fun and beautiful works of art.

From an early age, Franz Gsellmann is drawn to machines like the family cuckoo clock. He hears a tiny whisper calling him to imagine, discover, create... but growing up on a farm in rural Austria means there's no time for playing and imagining. Despite having to quit school to do farm work, Franz never loses his urge to invent. He collects hundreds of parts and interesting materials, often working late into the night to build them into something fantastic: a phantasmagorical contraption he calls his World Machine.

The adventures of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of the legendary Sherlock Holmes, come to life in this inspiring picture book biography. What if you wrote a story about a detective, and he became the most famous detective ever? Wouldn’t that be wonderful? Or . . . would it?

In the boomtowns of the Alaska-Yukon stampedes, where gold dust was common currency, the rarest commodity was an attractive woman, and her company could be costly. Author Lael Morgan takes you into the heart of the gold rush demimonde, that "half world" of prostitutes, dance hall girls, and entertainers who lived on the outskirts of polite society. Meet "Dutch Kate" Wilson, who pioneered many areas long before the "respectable" women who received credit for getting there first ... ruthless heartbreakers Cad Wilson and Rose Blumkin ...

A poet and journalist looks back on a remarkable journey from Turkey to Nepal in 1978, when the region was on the brink of massive transformation. In the spring of 1978, at age twenty-two, Mark Abley put aside his studies at Oxford and set off with a friend on a three-month trek across the celebrated Hippie Trail -- a sprawling route between Europe and South Asia, peppered with Western bohemians and vagabonds. It was a time when the Shah of Iran still reigned supreme, Afghanistan lay at peace, and city streets from Turkey to India teemed with unrest.