Albert Einstein: his name has become a synonym for genius. His wild case of bedhead and playful sense of humor made him a media superstar–the first, maybe only, scientist-celebrity.

He wasn’t much for lab work–in fact he had a tendency to blow up experiments. What he liked to do was think–not in words, but in “thought experiments.” What was the result of all his thinking? Nothing less than the overturning of Newtonian physics.

Once again, Kathleen Krull delivers a witty and astute look at one of the true Giants of Science, and the turbulent times in which he lived.

Award-winning author Kathleen Krull takes an in-depth historical look at immigration in America–with remarkable stories of some of the immigrants who helped build this country.

With its rich historical text, fascinating sidebars about many immigrants throughout time, an extensive source list and timeline, as well as captivating photos, American Immigration will become a go-to resource for every child, teacher, and librarian discussing the complex history of immigration.

America is a nation of immigrants. People have come to the United States from around the world seeking a better life and more opportunities, and our country would not be what it is today without their contributions.

From writers like Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, to scientists like Albert Einstein, to innovators like Elon Musk, this book honors the immigrants who have changed the way we think, eat, and live. Their stories serve as powerful reminders of the progress we’ve made, and the work that is still left to be done.

Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.

Sure, almost all kids know Benjamin Franklin as one of America’s Founding Fathers, a man with a hand in both the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution. And they may even have some vague idea that he once flew a kite during a lightning storm. What Kathleen Krull sets out to do in this very different biography is show Ben Franklin as the “natural philosopher” (the term for scientists back in the 1700s), whose experiments led to important discoveries about the nature of electricity–including his famous demonstration that electricity and lightning were one and the same.

As always, this much-lauded series presents a true Giant of Science in a juicily anecdotal way. This is social history at its best … who knew that Franklin became such a megastar that Paris shops sold Ben dolls, Ben ashtrays, and even Ben wallpaper?

Witty and engaging, this is a worthy addition to the Giants of Science series.

By blending historical details with “amusing anecdotes that put flesh and blood on dry literary bones,” best-selling kids author Kathleen Krull “knows exactly how to captivate her audience” (Publishers Weekly). In this playful look at hair, Krull draws upon centuries of hairy history-including the fake beards of Egyptian queens, the hair-filled medicine of the Incas, and the diverse wigs of Queen Elizabeth I-to show just how hair-brained people can be.

All his life, Charles Darwin hated controversy. Yet he takes his place among the Giants of Science for what remains an immensely controversial subject: the theory of evolution.

Darwin began piecing together his explanation for how all living things change or adapt during his five-year voyage on the HMS Beagle. But it took him twenty years to go public, for fear of the backlash his theory would cause.

Once again, Kathleen Krull delivers a witty and astute picture of one of history’s greatest scientists.

One minute you can’t live without them . . . the next minute you don’t want them breathing your air! Siblings everywhere will relate to this humorous look at famous brothers and sisters whose important bonds have shaped their accomplishments . . . (mostly) for the better.

They blame you when they get in trouble. They seem like your parents’ favorite. They are the only enemy you can’t live without. Almost everyone has a juicy story about their siblings–even famous people. Meet those who got along, those who didn’t, and everyone in between!

Oh, brother! This could get ugly. . . .

Award-winning author Kathleen Krull celebrates our most important Hispanic civil rights leader.

Cesar Chavez is known as one of America’s greatest civil rights leaders. When he led a 340-mile peaceful protest march through California, he ignited a cause and improved the lives of thousands of migrant farmworkers. But Cesar wasn’t always a leader. As a boy, he was shy and teased at school. His family slaved in the fields for barely enough money to survive.Cesar knew things had to change, and he thought that–maybe–he could help change them. So he took charge. He spoke up. And an entire country listened.

Kathleen Krull’s biographies for young readers have received accolades from publications such as Publishers Weekly and School Library Journal, and here she profiles Sir Isaac Newton–the father of calculus and the man who pioneered studies of gravity

What was Isaac Newton like? Secretive, vindictive, withdrawn, obsessive, and, oh, yes, brilliant. His imagination was so large that, just “by thinking on it,” he invented calculus and figured out the scientific explanation of gravity. Yet Newton was so small-minded that he set out to destroy other scientists who dared question his findings.

This compelling portrait of Newton, contradictions and all, places him against the backdrop of 17th-century England, a time of plague, the Great Fire of London, and two revolutions. Krull details Newton’s lonely childhood, his education, and his sometimes tumultuous relationship with contemporaries in this captivating and concise look at one of history’s greatest geniuses.

Leonardo da Vinci’s notebooks are mind-boggling evidence of a fifteenth-century scientific genius standing at the edge of the modern world, basing his ideas on observation and experimentation. This book will change children’s ideas of who Leonardo was and what it means to be a scientist.

Not all governments have been run by men. Lives of Extraordinary Women turns the spotlight on the women who have wielded power, revealing their feats–and flaws–for all the world to see. Here you’ll find twenty of the most influential women in history: queens, warriors, prime ministers, first ladies, revolutionary leaders. Some are revered. Others are notorious. But they were all real people with private interests and personalities. What were they really like? What did they do for fun? Did their neighbors gossip about them? What were their tragedies and their triumphs? In this grand addition to their highly praised series, Kathleen Krull and Kathryn Hewitt celebrate some of the world’s most noteworthy women–rulers and rebels who refused to stay in the wings and let others run the show. Wild or mild, hated or beloved, each of these women dared to stand up and be a leader.

In this entertaining, informative collection, listeners will discover the idiosyncrasies–sometimes humorous, sometimes tragic–of twenty famous artists: Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo Buonarroti, Peter Bruegel, Sofonisba Anguissola, Rembrandt van Rijn, Katsushika Hokusai, Mary Cassatt, Vincent Van Gogh, Kathe Kollwitz, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Marc Chagall, Marcel Duchamp, Georgia O’Keeffe, William H. Johnson, Salvador Dali, Isamu Noguchi, Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, and Andy Warhol.

Do you have a favorite sports hero? If so, have you ever wondered about what kind of zany things things he or she likes to do when not competing? Have you ever wondered what the great athletes like to eat, or what they like to drink? For instance, it’s a little-known fact that baseball great Babe Ruth relished the chance to wolf-down pickled eels and chocolate ice cream! Do you ever imagine what their childhoods were like? This fascinating book answers all these questions and many more you might never have even thought to ask! Featuring inspiring stories and wacky trivia about 20 different world-class athletes, this book by Kathleen Krull is sure to get young sports-fans excited about reading. “While readers will find out about the subjects’ most prodigious physical feats, it’s what else they’ll learn about them that propels this title above most other books published in this subject area.”-School Library Journal

You might know that Columbus discovered America, Lewis and Clark headed west with Sacajawea, and Sally Ride blasted into space. But what do you really know about these bold explorers? What were they like as kids? What pets or bad habits did they have? And what drove their passion to explore unknown parts of the world? With juicy tidbits about everything from favorite foods to first loves, Lives of the Explorers reveals these fascinating adventurers as both world-changers and real people.

The entertaining style and solid research of the Lives of … series of biographies have made it a favorite with families and educators for twenty years. This new volume takes readers through the centuries and across the globe, profiling the men and women whose curiosity and courage have led them to discover our world.

It’s no secret that Beethoven went deaf, that Mozart had constant money problems, and that Gilbert and Sullivan wrote musicals. But what were these people–and other famous musicians–really like? What did they eat? What did they wear? How did they spend their time? What were they like as children? What were their phobias, obsessions, and bad habits? And what did their neighbors think of it all? Here are the fascinating and often humorous stories of twenty famous musicians–people of all shapes, sizes, temperaments, and lifestyles, from various countries and historical periods, beginning with Vivaldi and ending with Woody Guthrie. Accompanied by brilliant caricatures, Lives of the Musicians will appeal to those who love music, to those who like to hear the story behind a famous name, and to just about everyone else.

The pirates of legend sailed the seven seas, exercised a salty vocabulary, and pursued lives full of swordplay and adventure. But what was life like for the real pirates of history? What odd animals did William Dampier have on board? Why did Grace O’Malley cut off her hair? And which pirate liked to wear pajamas on deck? Through the spyglass of the seafaring, Kathleen Krull and Kathryn Hewitt return to their acclaimed series of collective biographies, complete with fascinating facts and sly characters. From the notorious to the forgotten, Lives of the Pirates digs up the treasure buried in pirate history–perfect for scurvy dogs and curious readers of all ages.

Which president barked likes a dog–and why did another bark like a seal? Who threw lavish dinner parties with twenty-nine courses–and who was so disliked that his parties were boycotted? Which president had eighty pairs of pants? And which liked to remove his pants (and everything else) for a dip in the pool, expecting everyone around him to skinny-dip too? The presidents of the United States have been different not only in politics, but also as people. Kathleen Krull looks at our nation’s fearless leaders with the eye of a gossipy neighbor, dishing the dirt on bad habits, bad fashion, and bad manners (and more than a few good things in between).

Scientists have a reputation for being focused on their work–and maybe even dull. But take another look. Did you know that it’s believed Galileo was scolded by the Roman Inquisition for sassing his mom? That Isaac Newton loved to examine soap bubbles? That Albert Einstein loved to collect joke books, and that geneticist Barbara McClintock wore a Groucho Marx disguise in public? With juicy tidbits about everything from favorite foods to first loves, the subjects of Kathleen Krull and Kathryn Hewitt’s Lives of the Scientists: Experiments, Explosions (and What the Neighbors Thought) are revealed as creative, bold, sometimes eccentric–and anything but dull.

History comes to life in this dynamic volume! Here are inside views of twenty writers–people of all shapes, sizes, temperaments, and lifestyles, from various countries and historical periods. Included are William Shakespeare, Edgar Allan Poe, Mark Twain, Zora Neale Hurston, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Jane Austen, Emily Dickenson, Charles Dickens, and many others.

Krull presents another top-notch scientific biography in the outstanding Giants of Science series.

Readers have come to expect chatty, direct narratives that develop distinct characters and place those individuals squarely in the context of both their times and their disciplines, and this account of the noted physicist’s life delivers the goods. From her childhood in an oppressed Poland, the daughter of two highly educated individuals, Curie emerges as a driven woman, determined to excel for both her parents’ and her country’s sake–this drive informing everything that followed.

As in previous series entries, this offering manages to take a wildly complex subject–atomic physics–and render it comprehensible to the child listener, emphasizing the legacy Curie left behind. Curie’s personal life–her unusual (for the times) partnership with her husband, her frustration with the limitations imposed on her because of her sex, her difficulty balancing work and family–receives admiring, but frank consideration.

Listeners will emerge from this account with a new appreciation for both the scientific and social advances made by Curie, whose towering achievements justly earn her a place among the “Giants.”

This book explores the world of Sigmund Freud, who, making it into the author’s highly popular series due to his creation of a brand-new branch of medicine called psychoanalysis, introduced the world to such controversial theories as Oedipal complexes, the id, and the ego.

Young Neil deGrasse Tyson was starstruck when he first visited the sky theater at the Hayden Planetarium in New York City. He couldn’t believe the crowded, glittering night sky at the planetarium was real–until a visit to the country years later revealed the impossible.

That discovery was like rocket fuel for Neil’s passion about space. His quest for knowledge took him from the roof of his apartment building to a science expedition in northwest Africa, to a summer astronomy camp beneath a desert sky, and finally back home to become the director of the Hayden Planetarium, where it all began. Before long, Neil became America’s favorite guide to the cosmos.

This story of how one boy’s quest for knowledge about space led him to become a star scientist is perfect for young children who are fascinated by the universe, aspiring scientists, and the dreamer in all of us. It will ignite your own sense of wonder.

Most people know about President FDR, but do you know the woman who created his groundbreaking New Deal? As a young girl, Frances Perkins was very shy and quiet. But her grandmother encouraged Frances to always challenge herself. When somebody opens a door to you, go forward. And so she did. Frances realized she had to make her voice heard, even when speaking made her uncomfortable, in order to fight injustice and build programs to protect people across the nation. So when newly-elected President Franklin Delano Roosevelt finally asked Frances to be the first female Secretary of Labor and help pull the nation out of the Great Depression, she knew she had to walk through that open door and forward into history. In this empowering, inspirational biography, discover how the first woman to serve in a presidential cabinet led the charge to create the safety net that protects American workers and their families to this day.

“No Taxation without Representation!” The Boston Tea Party stands as an iconic event of the American Revolution—outraged by the tax on tea, American colonists chose to destroy the tea by dumping it into the water! Learn all about the famed colonialists who fought against the British Monarchy, and listen to this audiobook about this act of rebellion from our history! The Boston Tea party is brought to life!

On August 28, 1963, more than 200,000 people gathered in Washington, DC, to demand equal rights for all races. It was there that Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech, and it was this peaceful protest that spurred the momentous civil rights laws of the mid-1960s. The March is brought to life in this audiobook!

Discover how animals influenced twenty of the world’s most beloved authors, from Charles Dickens to J. K. Rowling.

Did you know that a dog saved Pablo Neruda’s life? Or that Mark Twain had a cat named Bambino? Or that Edgar Allan Poe wrote with a cat on his shoulders?

Writers and Their Pets tells these stories and many more that will delight not only children but also literary experts, history lovers, and animal enthusiasts. Each short chapter focuses on one author’s life, using simple and entertaining text to weave tales of the pets that affected the lives and works of these writers.

Writers and Their Pets features a diverse list of both male and female international authors, from the nineteenth to the twenty-first century, including Beatrix Potter, E. B. White, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Kurt Vonnegut, Maurice Sendak, Ernest Hemingway, and more.