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Molly was a cook at a firehouse but a snowstorm and influenza in 19th century New York turned Molly into a firefighter. Her quick thinking and moxie made her volunteer service as good as any man’s. Animated language and lively illustrations bring the person and her time into focus. Endnotes separate fact and fiction and provide additional resources and information.

Martin and his sister grew up in a Lima, Peru, barrio, children of an African slave and a Spanish nobleman. Martin was apprenticed to a cirujano, would join a Dominican monastery, and later become sought after as a healer. Jewel-like illustrations complement the accessible telling to reveal a man of faith and courage, despite the prejudices he confronted.

A former slave and sharecropper Bill Traylor moved to the city after his wife’s death. Though he stored up memories of farm life and family, Traylor only began creating art in his 80s when he was homeless. Another artist, Charles Shannon, championed Traylor’s work. Traylor is now considered among the most significant of self-taught folk artists.

Who is Henry David Thoreau? What would it be like to spend a day with him? A contemporary boy depicted in blue jeans and a t-shirt knocks at his door and meets the 19th century Thoreau, as the imaginative text fills in what it might have been like. Expressive illustrations, quotes, and gentle interpretations bring Thoreau and his world to light for younger readers.

The voice of an old, blind Galileo Galilei is used to look back on a life that started in Pisa where early on he challenged tradition. Though confined, the elderly Galileo asserts that, “The truth has a way of escaping into the light.” Bold lines border illustrations to evoke time and place, enhanced by spot illustrations of Galileo’s work and observations.

Bold, bright illustrations and a cheerful text that includes song lyrics introduce the life of an early 20th century African American performer. Though part of the Harlem Renaissance, Mills is a relative unknown who both on and off stage worked to help other African Americans and those who were less fortunate than she. An author’s note concludes this charming life sketch.

The world changed when rags and bone, sticky stuff, and other things came together in the hands of a man who lived in the German city of Mainz. Johannes Gutenberg had printed a book in a new way. Readers will be drawn in as the elements Gutenberg used unfold, illustrated in handsome, realistic illustrations. An epilogue completes this intriguing book.

Product Description: Alma Flor Ada’s groundbreaking bilingual collection of rhymes from Spain and Latin America repackaged with a compact disc containing recordings of the included pieces.

The simple, plain text tells of the close relationship between Tommy and his namesake grandfather, Tom. They read the comics together, act out poems, make up stories, and play practical jokes.

“This handsomely designed, large-format book tells the story of Black Elk (1863–1950), a Lakota man who saw many changes come to his people. In this first-person, present-tense account, Black Elk says that as a nine-year-old boy, he is blessed with a Great Vision. At 12, he fights in the Battle of Little Bighorn. After traveling in Europe with Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show and, later, experiencing the massacre at Wounded Knee, he retreats to a reservation, where he holds his vision in his heart and offers it to others.” — Booklist

This picture book is a small glimpse, from A to Z, of some of the sights and sounds of the Michif language and its speakers. The language of the Métis, Michif is a combination of French and Cree with a trace of other regional languages. Once spoken by thousands of people across the prairies of Canada and the northern United States, Michif is now so little spoken that it might disappear within a generation. This alphabet book is part of a resurgence to celebrate and preserve the traditions of the Métis people.