Tricia Martineau Wagner

Young animal lovers will delight in all the crazy things animals do that seem too crazy to believe, but are really true This book describes real animals and their wacky quirks, whether incredible, funny, or just plain gross, these peculiar and fascinating animal behaviors will surprise and delight fun-fact lovers of all ages. Everything from giraffes cleaning their ears with their tongues to frogs freezing in the winter

Young animal lovers will delight in all the crazy things animals do that seem too crazy to believe, but are really true This book describes real animals and their wacky quirks, whether incredible, funny, or just plain gross, these peculiar and fascinating animal behaviors will surprise and delight fun-fact lovers of all ages. Everything from vultures vomiting roadkill at would-be attackers to naked mole rats who run just as fast backwards as they do forwards is covered.

From a riverboat worker who dressed as a woman to the abolitionist who died for his beliefs, It Happened on the Underground Railroad offers a gripping look at heroic individuals who became a part of the famous “road” to freedom. Read about Peter Still, a former slave who came to the Philadelphia Antislavery Society in search of his family, only to discover that the man sitting in front of him was his brother. Meet the individuals who may have inspired characters in the novels Uncle Tom’s Cabin and Beloved. Learn about the bakery where Frederick Douglass was first helped to freedom. And experience the heart-pounding fear of a man who mailed himself north.

Many of the events that took place along the Oregon Trail are well known--the perils the Applegate family faced as they rafted down the raging Columbia River, the plight of the Donner Party as they found themselves snowbound and starving at Truckee Lake. But do you know the whole story? It Happened on the Oregon Trail reveals the stories of these well-known events as well as many lesser-known happenings, providing insights about the adventurous emigrants who, beginning in the 1840s, headed west in covered wagons in search of a better life. The hardships and the joys of the 2000-mile journey across plains, mountains, and deserts come alive in this entertaining and informative book.

The word cowboy conjures up vivid images of rugged men on saddled horses—men lassoing cattle, riding bulls, or brandishing guns in a shoot-out. White men, as Hollywood remembers them. What is woefully missing from these scenes is their counterparts: the black cowboys who made up one-fourth of the wranglers and rodeo riders. This book tells their story. When the Civil War ended, black men left the Old South in large numbers to seek a living in the Old West—industrious men resolved to carve out a life for themselves on the wild, roaming plains. Some had experience working cattle from their time as slaves; others simply sought a freedom they had never known before. The lucky travelled on horseback; the rest, by foot. Over dirt roads they went from Alabama and South Carolina to present-day Texas and California up north through Kansas to Montana. The Old West was a land of opportunity for these adventurous wranglers and future rodeo champions. A long overdue testament to the courage and skill of black cowboys, Black Cowboys of the Old West finally gives these courageous men their rightful place in history.

The brave pioneers who made a life on the frontier were not only male—and they were not only white. The story of African-American women in the Old West is one that has largely gone untold until now. The stories of ten African-American women are reconstructed from historic documents found in century-old archives. Some of these women slaves, some were free, and some were born into slavery and found freedom in the old west. They were laundresses, freedom advocates, journalists, educators, midwives, business proprietors, religious converts, philanthropists, mail and freight haulers, and civil and social activists. These hidden historical figures include Biddy Mason, a slave who fought for her family's freedom; Elizabeth Thorn Scott Flood, a teacher determined to educate black children and aid them in leading better lives; and the mysterious Mary Ellen Pleasant, a civil rights crusader and savvy businesswoman. Even in the face of racial prejudice, these unsung heroes never gave up hope for a brighter future.

It Happened on the Oregon Trail includes twenty-nine unusual, remarkable, little known events that happened along the trail from Independence, Missouri to Oregon's Willamette Valley. From Rufus K. Porter's brilliant plan to fly people to Oregon in hot air balloons, to the plight of a young girl who climbed Independence Rock to carve her name and was left behind by her wagon party, this book reveals the hidden stories about the trail.