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Sista Sister: The much-anticipated second book by the Sunday Times bestseller
by Candice BrathwaiteCandice Brathwaite's much-anticipated second book about all the things she wishes she'd been told when she was young and needed guidance._______________'This book is like the older sibling you wish you'd had growing up' - Cosmopolitan'Fans of I Am Not Your Baby Mother, brace for another corker from Candice Brathwaite' - Pandora Sykes'One of the best books I've read this year' - Yewande Biala'A sharp, sometimes moving self-help book' - Observer'Direct, accessible and in parts, very funny' - Guardian_______________I Am Not Your Baby Mother was a landmark publication in 2020. A Sunday Times top five bestseller, it was an important call-to-arms allowing mothers to take control and scrap the parenting rulebook to do it their own way.Sista Sister goes further. It is a compilation of essays about all the things Candice wishes someone had talked to her about when she was a young black girl growing up in London. From family and money to black hair and fashion, as well as colourism and relationships between people of different races, this is a fascinating read that will launch some much-needed conversations, between Sistas and Sisters alike.Written in Candice's trademark straight-talking, warm and funny style, it will delight her fans, old and new.______________Praise for I Am Not Your Baby Mother'Accessible, sometimes shocking, honest, and feels written from the heart' - Bernardine Evaristo'I gobbled it in one weekend and encourage everyone - mother, or otherwise - to do the same' - Pandora Sykes'Remarkable' - Lorraine Kelly'Searing' - Dolly Alderton'I absolutely loved I Am Not Your Baby Mother' - Giovanna Fletcher'This book is needed for the voiceless' - Nadiya Hussain'Brilliant' - Sophie Ellis-Bextor'An essential exploration of the realities of black motherhood in the UK' - Observer'Urgent part-memoir, part-manifesto about black motherhood' - Red'[An] original and much-needed guide to navigating black motherhood' - Cosmopolitan'The woman bringing a fresh perspective to the mumfluencer world' - Grazia'Every mother, everywhere, should read this book' - OK Magazine
Sista Sister: The much-anticipated second book by the Sunday Times bestseller
by Candice BrathwaiteCandice Brathwaite's much-anticipated second book about all the things she wishes she'd been told when she was young and needed guidance._______________'This book is like the older sibling you wish you'd had growing up' - Cosmopolitan'Fans of I Am Not Your Baby Mother, brace for another corker from Candice Brathwaite' - Pandora Sykes'One of the best books I've read this year' - Yewande Biala'A sharp, sometimes moving self-help book' - Observer'Direct, accessible and in parts, very funny' - Guardian_______________I Am Not Your Baby Mother was a landmark publication in 2020. A Sunday Times top five bestseller, it was an important call-to-arms allowing mothers to take control and scrap the parenting rulebook to do it their own way.Sista Sister goes further. It is a compilation of essays about all the things Candice wishes someone had talked to her about when she was a young black girl growing up in London. From family and money to black hair and fashion, as well as colourism and relationships between people of different races, this is a fascinating read that will launch some much-needed conversations, between Sistas and Sisters alike.Written in Candice's trademark straight-talking, warm and funny style, it will delight her fans, old and new.______________Praise for I Am Not Your Baby Mother'Accessible, sometimes shocking, honest, and feels written from the heart' - Bernardine Evaristo'I gobbled it in one weekend and encourage everyone - mother, or otherwise - to do the same' - Pandora Sykes'Remarkable' - Lorraine Kelly'Searing' - Dolly Alderton'I absolutely loved I Am Not Your Baby Mother' - Giovanna Fletcher'This book is needed for the voiceless' - Nadiya Hussain'Brilliant' - Sophie Ellis-Bextor'An essential exploration of the realities of black motherhood in the UK' - Observer'Urgent part-memoir, part-manifesto about black motherhood' - Red'[An] original and much-needed guide to navigating black motherhood' - Cosmopolitan'The woman bringing a fresh perspective to the mumfluencer world' - Grazia'Every mother, everywhere, should read this book' - OK Magazine
A Fine Romance (A Bestselling Memoir)
by Candice BergenIn this New York Times bestseller, acclaimed actress Candice Bergen “shows how to do a memoir right...The self-possessed, witty, and down-to-earth voice that made Bergen’s first memoir a hit when it was published in 1984 has only been deepened by life’s surprises” (The New York Times Book Review).“Candice Bergen is unflinchingly honest” (The Washington Post), and in A Fine Romance she describes her first marriage at age thirty-four to famous French director Louis Malle; her overpowering love for her daughter, Chloe; the unleashing of her inner comic with Murphy Brown; her trauma over Malle’s death; her joy at finding new love; and her pride at watching Chloe blossom. In her decidedly nontraditional marriage to the insatiably curious Louis, Bergen takes readers on world travels to the sets where each made films. Pregnant with Chloe at age thirty-nine, this mature primigravida also recounts a journey through motherhood that includes plundering the Warner Bros. costume closets for Halloween getups and never leaving her ever-expanding menagerie out of the fun. She offers priceless, behind-the-scenes looks at Murphy Brown, from caterwauling with Aretha Franklin to the surreal experience of becoming headline news when Dan Quayle took exception to her character becoming a single mother. Bergen tackles familiar rites of passage with moving honesty: the rigors of caring for a spouse in his final illness, getting older, and falling in love again after she was tricked into a blind date. By the time the last page is turned, “we’re all likely to be wishing Bergen herself—funny, insightful, self-deprecating, flawed (and not especially concerned about that), and slugging her way through her older years with bemused determination—was living next door” (USA TODAY).
Knock Wood
by Candice BergenCandice Bergen’s bestselling 1984 memoir: an “engaging, intelligent, and wittily self-deprecating autobiography” (The New York Times).
What to Look for in Winter: A Memoir in Blindness
by Candia McWilliamThe British literary sensation—“the most startling, discomforting, complicated, ungovernable, hilarious and heart-rending of memoirs ” (The Telegraph)—the story of a celebrated writer’s sudden descent into blindness, and of the redemptive journey into the past that her loss of sight sets in motion. Candia McWilliam, whose novels A Case of Knives, A Little Stranger, and Debatable Land made her a reader favorite throughout the United Kingdom and around the world, here breaks her decade-long silence with a searing, intimate memoir that fans of Lorna Sage’s Bad Blood, Mary Karr’s Lit, and Diana Athill’s Somewhere Toward the End will agree “cements her status as one of our most important literary writers beyond question” (Financial Times).
Iconic Women of Colour: The Amazing True Stories Behind Inspirational Women of Colour
by Candi WilliamsDiscover the fascinating stories behind 38 iconic women of colour, all of them ground-breakers, risk-takers and game-changers. Whether they are sportswomen, scientists, activists or superstars, every one of these women has been a trailblazer in their field, and deserves to have her achievements celebrated the world over. Be empowered and inspired by their extraordinary life stories, their awesome achievements and their wonder-words of wisdom with this pocketbook of remarkable women, and prepare to be introduced to your new superheroes.
Regifted: An Adoptee's Memoir of True Belonging
by Candi ByrneA raw, often wry, memoir of mothers, mysteries, and miracles. Surrendered at birth in a closed adoption, Candi Byrne’s biology and ethnicity is a secret. The impending arrival of her first grandchild ignites an urgency to identify potential genetic time bombs and confirm her ancestry. Due to arcane privacy laws, Candi is repeatedly denied access to the one person who could provide that information—her biological mother. After years of failed attempts, she resigns herself to never learning the truth about her roots; that is, until her ninety-year-old Aunt Delores has a vision and insists Candi resume efforts to find her birth family. Candi is gobsmacked when an internet search she’s performed thousands of times before suddenly reveals her birth mother’s identity. Within hours, she ends up on the doorstep of her birth mother—a place she’s sworn never to visit. After a series of guilt-driven interactions with “Those People,” as she refers to her maternal birth family, Candi terminates contact. Although the reunion proves disastrous, it opens her eyes to truths about her relationship with her adoptive mother, Delphine. Though their relationship was difficult and contentious during Delphine’s life, a series of miraculous experiences after her death guides Candi home to herself—where, she learns, she has belonged all along.
Ese que fui: Expediente de una rebelión corporal
by Candelaria SchamunEn este testimonio íntimo y mordaz puede leerse la fractura de una época que discriminó, torturó y mutiló a las personas nacidas con alguna ambigüedad genital o con características intersex, que no encajaban en el binomio Mujer/Varón. La búsqueda del pasado oculto -con su cáustico señalamiento a los mandatos sociales sobre el cuerpo, el género y el sexo- entraña una mirada compasiva y tierna que permite la reconciliación de una mujer no solo con su pasado, también con su madre. «Si me expongo, es para dejar testimonio del daño irreparable e irreversible que hizo la medicina sobre mi cuerpo. Y es, entre otras razones, para exigir que dejen de mutilar a niños y niñas en nombre de la normalidad médica». Decidida a saber la verdad, la protagonista de Ese que fui se enfrenta con la familia y consigo misma. El rompecabezas hecho de silencios, recuerdos fragmentarios, síntomas físicos, dolores atroces y culpas incomprensibles empieza a encajar cuando por casualidad encuentra una carpeta con su nombre en el fondo de un cajón. Impactada por lo que esos papeles insinúan, escapa de su casa. Pero, como toda fuga, esta es también circular: apenas su madre manifieste los primeros indicios de estar perdiendo la memoria, querrá preguntarle lo que hasta entonces no pudo. Candelaria Schamun, quien trabajó por años como cronista de policiales, inicia una pesquisa en tiempo real que la tiene por presunta víctima. ¿Cuál es el fantasma que la habita? Reclamará legajos en los juzgados; revisará historias clínicas; entrevistará a médicos, parientes, exparejas, activistas y personas con experiencias similares, para denunciar el borramiento del que ha sido objeto. La crítica dijo: «Este libro es muchos libros: una investigación autobiográfica, la denuncia sobre los mecanismos crueles y la moral conservadora de la medicina, una novela apasionante sobre un secreto familiar. Pero sobre todo es la narración conmovedora del encuentro con la verdadera identidad. Pocas veces me emocioné tanto».Luciano Lamberti
Greetings From Janeland: Women Write More About Leaving Men for Women
by Candace Walsh<P>In an increasingly common phenomenon, women who once identified as straight are leaving men for women and they have fascinating stories to tell. <P>In this sequel to Lambda Literary Finalist Dear John, I Love Jane: Women Write About Leaving Men for Women, writers who come from a diverse array of perspectives open up and bare their souls. <P>Essays on subjects such as repercussions, both bad and good; exes, both furious and supportive; bewildered and loyal family and friends; mind-blowing sexual and emotional awakenings; falling in the deepest of love; and finding a sense of community fill the pages of this anthology. One story is as different from the next as one person is from another. <P>With a foreword by former Editor in Chief of AfterEllen and Trish Bendix, and essays by acclaimed writers including BK Loren, Louise A. Blum, and Leah Lax, relax, sit back and take a journey into Janeland-?a very special place where women search for, discover, and live their own personal truths.
Licking the Spoon: A Memoir of Food, Family, and Identity
by Candace Walsh"Recipes and cookbooks, meals and mouthfuls have framed the way Candace Walsh sees the world for as long as she can remember, from her frosting-spackled childhood to her meat-eschewing college years to her post-college phase as a devoted Martha Stewart's Entertaining disciple. In Licking the Spoon, Walsh tells how, lacking role models in her early life, she turned to cookbook authors real and fictitious (Betty Crocker, Martha Stewart, Mollie Katzen, Daniel Boulud, and more) to learn, unlearn, and redefine her own womanhood. Through the lens of food, Walsh recounts her life's journey-from unhappy adolescent to straight-identified wife and mother to divorcee in a same-sex relationship-and she throws in some dishy revelations, a-ha moments, take-home tidbits, and mouth-watering recipes for good measure. A surprising and rambunctiously liberating tale of cooking and eating, loving and being loved, Licking the Spoon is the story of how-accompanied by pivotal recipes, cookbooks, culinary movements, and guides-one woman learned that you can not only recover but blossom after a comically horrible childhood if you just have the right recipes, a little luck, and an appetite for life's next meal. "--
A Geography of Blood
by Candace Savage*Finalist, Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Non-FictionWhen Candace Savage and her partner buy a house in the romantic little town of Eastend, she has no idea what awaits her. At first she enjoys exploring the area around their new home, including the boyhood haunts of the celebrated American writer Wallace Stegner, the back roads of the Cypress Hills, the dinosaur skeletons at the T.Rex Discovery Centre, the fossils to be found in the dust-dry hills. She also revels in her encounters with the wild inhabitants of this mysterious land-three coyotes in a ditch at night, their eyes glinting in the dark; a deer at the window; a cougar pussy-footing it through a gully a few minutes' walk from town.But as Savage explores further, she uncovers a darker reality-a story of cruelty and survival set in the still-recent past--and finds that she must reassess the story she grew up with as the daughter, granddaughter, and great-granddaughter of prairie homesteaders.Beautifully written, impeccably researched, and imbued with Savage's passion for this place, A Geography of Blood offers both a shocking new version of plains history and an unforgettable portrait of the windswept, shining country of the Cypress Hills.
Joss Whedon: The Genius Behind Buffy
by Candace HavensJoss Whedon: The Genius Behind Buffy is a biography of Joss Whedon, the wunderkind creator of television shows Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel and Firefly.From Booklist: Writers, actors, and fans often call Joss Whedon a genius. It's easy to see why. Whedon, who got his start writing for Roseanne, dreamed of writing movie screenplays. He got his shot when he sold his script for Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but the movie fell far short of his hopes for it. After a few years of working as a script doctor, Whedon got the chance to doBuffy again, this time as a TV show.Few expected it to succeed, but Whedon's humor and intelligence shone through in the scripts, and viewers quickly became attached to the engaging, witty characters. Buffy kept getting better: each season of the show featured a complex story arc possessed of a real sense of danger and further developed the characters. The last few years have brought the Buffy spin-off Angel, the lamentably canceled Firefly (a space western), and the comic book Fray. Engaging and filled with fun quotes, this is a must-read for Whedon's many fans.
Amelia Lost: The Life and Disappearance of Amelia Earhart
by Candace FlemingFrom the acclaimed author of The Great and Only Barnum - as well as The Lincolns, Our Eleanor, and Ben Franklin's Almanac - comes the thrilling story of America's most celebrated flyer, Amelia Earhart. In alternating chapters, Fleming deftly moves readers back and forth between Amelia's life (from childhood up until her last flight) and the exhaustive search for her and her missing plane. With incredible photos, maps, and handwritten notes from Amelia herself-plus informative sidebars tackling everything from the history of flight to what Amelia liked to eat while flying (tomato soup) - this unique nonfiction title is tailor-made for middle graders.
Amelia Lost: The Life and Disappearance of Amelia Earhart
by Candace FlemingFrom the acclaimed author of The Great and Only Barnum--as well as The Lincolns, Our Eleanor, and Ben Franklin's Almanac--comes the thrilling story of America's most celebrated flyer, Amelia Earhart. <P><P>In alternating chapters, Fleming deftly moves readers back and forth between Amelia's life (from childhood up until her last flight) and the exhaustive search for her and her missing plane. With incredible photos, maps, and handwritten notes from Amelia herself--plus informative sidebars tackling everything from the history of flight to what Amelia liked to eat while flying (tomato soup)--this unique nonfiction title is tailor-made for middle graders. <P><P>Amelia Lost received four starred reviews and Best Book of the Year accolades from School Library Journal, Kirkus Reviews, Horn Book Magazine, the Washington Post, and the New York Times.From the Hardcover edition.
Ben Franklin's Almanac
by Candace Fleming"What good shall I do today?" How Ben Franklin answered that question -- through his work as a writer, printer, statesman, and inventor -- forever established him as one of America's greatest figures. On one day in 1729 he published the first edition of the Pennsylvania Gazette; on another day he changed the Declaration of Independence by adding the famous words, "We hold these truths to be self-evident"; and it was all in a day's work when he planted the first willow trees in America. Modeled on his own Poor Richard's Almanack, this unique scrapbook captures Franklin's countless accomplishments. Biography and anecdote, cartoon and etching mesh to create a fascinating portrait of this most fascinating man. Anyone interested in the birth of American democracy...or curious about the rise of the U.S. postal system...or wondering how paper money came to be...or wanting to know how Ben Franklin was part of it all, is sure to pore over Ben Franklin's Almanac.
Cubs in the Tub: The True Story of the Bronx Zoo's First Woman Zookeeper
by Candace FlemingFred and Helen Martini longed for a baby, and they ended up with dozens of lion and tiger cubs! Snuggle up to this purr-fect read aloud about the Bronx Zoo's first female zoo-keeper.When Bronx Zoo-keeper Fred brought home a lion cub, Helen Martini instantly embraced it. The cub's mother lost the instinct to care for him. "Just do for him what you would do with a human baby," Fred suggested...and she did. Helen named him MacArthur, and fed him milk from a bottle and cooed him to sleep in a crib.Soon enough, MacArthur was not the only cub bathed in the tub! The couple continues to raise lion and tiger cubs as their own, until they are old enough to return them to zoos. Helen becomes the first female zookeeper at the Bronx zoo, the keeper of the nursery.This is a terrific non-fiction book to read aloud while snuggling up with your cubs! Filled with adorable baby cats, this is a story about love, dedication, and a new kind of family.Gorgeously patterned illustrations by Julie Downing detail the in-home nursery and a warm pallet creates a cozy pairing with Candace Fleming's lovely language.Backmatter includes a short biography of Helen Martini and a selected bibliography.A Junior Library Guild SelectionA Bank Street Best Children's Book of the YearNamed to the Texas Topaz Reading List
Death in the Jungle: Murder, Betrayal, and the Lost Dream of Jonestown
by Candace FlemingHow did Jim Jones, the leader of Peoples Temple, convince more than 900 of his followers to commit "revolutionary suicide" by drinking cyanide-laced punch? From a master of narrative nonfiction comes a chilling chronicle of one of the most notorious cults in American history.Using riveting first-person accounts, award-winning author Candace Fleming reveals the makings of a monster: from Jones&’s humble origins as a child of the Depression… to his founding of a group whose idealistic promises of equality and justice attracted thousands of followers… to his relocation of Temple headquarters from California to an unsettled territory in Guyana, South America, which he dubbed "Jonestown&”… to his transformation of Peoples Temple into a nefarious experiment in mind-control. And Fleming heart-stoppingly depicts Jones&’s final act, persuading his followers to swallow fatal doses of cyanide—to &“drink the kool-aid,&” as it became known—as a test of their ultimate devotion. Here is a sweeping story that traces, step by step, the ways in which one man slowly indoctrinated, then murdered, 900 innocent, well- meaning people. And how a few members, Jones' own son included, stood up to him... but not before it was too late.
Murder Among Friends: How Leopold and Loeb Tried to Commit the Perfect Crime
by Candace FlemingHow did two teenagers brutally murder an innocent child...and why? And how did their brilliant lawyer save them from the death penalty in 1920s Chicago? Written by a prolific master of narrative nonfiction, this is a compulsively readable true-crime story based on an event dubbed the "crime of the century."In 1924, eighteen-year-old college students Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb made a decision: they would commit the perfect crime by kidnapping and murdering a child they both knew. But they made one crucial error: as they were disposing of the body of young Bobby Franks, whom they had bludgeoned to death, Nathan's eyeglasses fell from his jacket pocket.Multi-award-winning author Candace Fleming depicts every twist and turn of this harrowing case--how two wealthy, brilliant young men planned and committed what became known as the crime of the century, how they were caught, why they confessed, and how the renowned criminal defense attorney Clarence Darrow enabled them to avoid the death penalty.Following on the success of such books as The Rise and Fall of Charles Lindbergh and The Family Romanov, this acclaimed nonfiction writer brings to heart-stopping life one of the most notorious crimes in our country's history.
Our Eleanor: A Scrapbook Look at Eleanor Roosevelt's Remarkable Life
by Candace FlemingNo matter how the question is answered, one thing is clear: There has hardly been a life in the last century that Eleanor Roosevelt has not affected, in one way or another. From securing safe, low-cost housing for Kentucky's poor, to helping her grandchildren hang a tire swing on the White House's south lawn, to representing America as the first female delegate to the United Nations, Eleanor rarely kept a second of her life for herself -- and she wouldn't have had it any other way.In this stunning "scrapbook" biography, Candace Fleming, author of the acclaimed Ben Franklin's Almanac, turns her keen eye to our nation's premier First Lady. Filled with photographs of everything from Eleanor's speech at the 1940 Democratic National Convention to her high school report card, as well as fascinating stories about life in and out of the White House, Our Eleanor gives us a remarkable perspective on a remarkable woman, and presents to a new generation an Eleanor to call its own.
Papa's Mechanical Fish
by Candace FlemingCandace Fleming and illustrator Boris Kulikov pair up to tell a fun story about a real submarine inventor in Papa's Mechanical FishClink! Clankety-bang! Thump-whirr! That's the sound of Papa at work. Although he is an inventor, he has never made anything that works perfectly, and that's because he hasn't yet found a truly fantastic idea. But when he takes his family fishing on Lake Michigan, his daughter Virena asks, "Have you ever wondered what it's like to be a fish?"—and Papa is off to his workshop. With a lot of persistence and a little bit of help, Papa—who is based on the real-life inventor Lodner Phillips—creates a submarine that can take his family for a trip to the bottom of Lake Michigan.
Presenting Buffalo Bill: The Man Who Invented The Wild West
by Candace FlemingEveryone knows the name Buffalo Bill, but few these days know what he did or, in some cases, didn't do. Was he a Pony Express rider? Did he serve Custer at the Battle of Little Big Horn? Did he scalp countless Native Americans, or did he defend their rights?<P><P> This, the first significant biography of Buffalo Bill Cody for younger readers in many years, explains it all. Presenting Buffalo Bill makes the great showman come alive for new generations. Extensive back matter, bibliography, and source notes complete the package.
Presenting Buffalo Bill: The Man Who Invented the Wild West
by Candace FlemingEveryone knows the name Buffalo Bill, but few these days know what he did or, in some cases, didn't do. Was he a Pony Express rider? Did he serve Custer at the Battle of Little Big Horn? Did he scalp countless Native Americans, or did he defend their rights?This, the first significant biography of Buffalo Bill Cody for younger readers in many years, explains it all. With copious archival illustrations and a handsome design, Presenting Buffalo Bill makes the great showman come alive for new generations. Extensive back matter, bibliography, and source notes complete the package. This title has Common Core connections.
The Amazing Collection of Joey Cornell: Based on the Childhood of a Great American Artist
by Candace FlemingAward-winning and bestselling author Candace Fleming delivers a stunning picture-book based on the childhood of artist and sculptor Joseph Cornell, sure to beguile aspiring artists and collectors of all ages.Joey Cornell collected everything -- anything that sparked his imagination or delighted his eye. His collection grew and grew until he realized that certain pieces just looked right together. He assembled his doodads to create wonderful, magical creations out of once ordinary objects. Perfect for introducing art to kids, here's an imaginative and engaging book based on the childhood of great American artist Joseph Cornell, told by master picture book author Candace Fleming and lauded illustrator Gérard DuBois.
The Family Romanov: Murder, Rebellion, and the Fall of Imperial Russia
by Candace Fleming"Marrying the intimate family portrait of Heiligman's Charles and Emma with the politics and intrigue of Sheinkin's Bomb, Fleming has outdone herself with this riveting work of narrative nonfiction that appeals to the imagination as much as the intellect." --The Horn Book, StarredFrom the acclaimed author of Amelia Lost and The Lincolns comes a heartrending narrative nonfiction page-turner--and a perfect resource for meeting Common Core standards. When Russia's last tsar, Nicholas II, inherited the throne in 1894, he was unprepared to do so. With their four daughters (including Anastasia) and only son, a hemophiliac, Nicholas and his reclusive wife, Alexandra, buried their heads in the sand, living a life of opulence as World War I raged outside their door and political unrest grew into the Russian Revolution.Deftly maneuvering between the lives of the Romanovs and the plight of Russia's peasants and urban workers--and their eventual uprising--Fleming offers up a fascinating portrait, complete with inserts featuring period photographs and compelling primary-source material that brings it all to life."An exhilarating narrative history of a doomed and clueless family and empire." --Jim Murphy, author of Newbery Honor Books An American Plague and The Great Fire"For readers who regard history as dull, Fleming's extraordinary book is proof positive that, on the contrary, it is endlessly fascinating, absorbing as any novel, and the stuff of an altogether memorable reading experience." --Booklist, Starred<P><P> Winner of the Sibert Honor
The Great and Only Barnum: The Tremendous, Stupendous Life of Showman P. T. Barnum
by Candace FlemingThe life of showman Phineas Taylor Barnum gets show-stopping treatment in Fleming's latest biographical work. Presented as clever, resilient and ever-consumed with making a buck, the Barnum of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus is brought to life in anecdotes over 11 chapters. Nicknamed Tale as a boy, he hated farmwork (I was always ready to concoct fun, or lay plans for money-making, but hand-work was decidedly not in my line). His personal struggles with alcohol and a less-than-happy marriage are detailed alongside his many public successes (and hoaxes). A tour of his famed American Museum and an account of a day at the circus (complete with descriptions of the human curiosities Barnum employed) set readers in the middle of the singular late 19th-century entertainment scene. As in a real circus, the large-format pages include plenty to grab readers' attention: white-on-black sidebars that put the entrepreneur's feats in context (African Americans were barred from entering Barnum's American Museum except on certain days), bw photos and advertising posters. Audiences will step right up to this illuminating and thorough portrait of an entertainment legend. Ages 8-12. Copyright Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.