Washoe County Library System

Gypsies, faith-healers, moonshiners, and snake handlers weave through Drema’s childhood in 1940s Appalachia after her father is killed in the coal mines, her mother goes off to work as a Rosie the Riveter, and she is left in the care of devout Pentecostal grandparents. What follows is a spitfire of a memoir that reads like a novel with intrigue, sweeping emotion, and indisputable charm. Drema’s coming of age is colored by tent revivals...

Focuses on the youth and early life of Benjamin Franklin, including his career as a printer and journalist, his scientific achievements, and his battles with rivals.

Relates an anecdote from Leonardo da Vinci's childhood in which his father, receiving a request to paint a shield, gives the job to Leonardo, who paints a monster so frightful that even his father becomes frightened.

Young Bobby Orr works hard to be the best hockey player he can be and his efforts pay off in one of the many important games that help prepare him to achieve his dream of one day playing in the big leagues.

Mary, the young Scottish queen, is sent a diary from her mother in which she records her experiences living at the court of France's King Henry II as she awaits her marriage to Henry's son, Francis.

From the moment that he first shook up the world in the mid 1950s, Elvis Presley has been one of the most vivid and enduring myths of American culture. Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley is the first biography to go past that myth and present an Elvis beyond the legend. Based on hundreds of interviews and nearly a decade of research, it traces the evolution not just of the man but of the music and of the culture he left utterly transformed,...

When she is chosen to compete in the local spelling bee, Stacey learns that, win or lose, her words are powerful, and sometimes perseverance is the most important word of all, in this debut picture book from the iconic voting rights advocate.

"An unforgettable memoir by an award-winning poet about being kidnapped from his Black father and raised by his white supremacist grandparents. When Shane McCrae was three years old, his grandparents kidnapped him and took him to suburban Texas. His mom was white and his dad was Black, and to hide his Blackness from him, his maternal grandparents stole him from his father. In the years that followed, they manipulated and controlled him, refusing...

An introduction to the presidents of the United States describes each president's childhood, career, achievements while in office, and life after the White House.