Collection: Biography & Memoir

​In 1969 Bernice Sandler was finishing her doctorate in Education at the University of Maryland, teaching part-time at the university, and trying to secure a full-time position. Despite her excellent credentials, it became clear she wasn't even being considered. But why? she wondered.

"Let's face it," a male colleague said, "you come on too strong for a woman."

Those fateful words brought sex discrimination home for Sandler. Facing it herself, front and center in her own workplace, meant she could no longer be ambivalent about women's rights. She could no longer buy the media coverage of feminists as "man-hating," "abrasive," and "unfeminine." But what could she do? Sandler soon discovered that none of the obvious laws prohibiting discrimination covered sex discrimination in education. Sandler's work led to the passage of Title IX--making it illegal, once and for all, for a federally funded institution to discriminate against someone based on their sex, including in education. This had a profound effect for women in the workplace, in school, and in sports.

Bernice Sandler and the Fight for Title IX that drives home the message that it doesn't take a person with power to make a difference. More often, it takes determination. When confronted with injustice, regular people can effect change. Also includes extensive backmatter about How To Be an Activist written by Know Your IX, a survivor- and youth-led project of Advocates for Youth that aims to empower students to end sexual and dating violence in their schools.

• 2022 FOREWORD INDIES FINALIST

The oral history of Disney's Hocus Pocus, one of the most beloved Halloween movies of all time

In July 1993, Disney's Hocus Pocus, starring Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Kathy Najimy, did not immediately find success, with box office numbers falling far below what was envisioned. Yet somehow the Halloween movie released in the middle of the summer to little fanfare has become an enduring and widely loved classic. Nearly three decades after the film's initial release, it's a yearly holiday viewing tradition in households around the world, becoming a not-so-scary rite of passage for kids and their parents, many of whom grew up watching the film about the resurrected witchy trio with their own parents.

Hocus Pocus is a movie that has few if any equals; it manages to span a generational divide, uniting boomers and zoomers in their nostalgic love for the boundary-pushing supernatural comedy that in some ways seemed a little too risqué for the millennial kids it was originally intended for. So how did a movie that didn't catch an initial spark end up casting such a spell on mainstream culture? Witches Run Amok answers that question and more, using interviews from the cast and creative team behind the heartwarming Halloween staple. The book is a love letter to Hocus Pocus's millions of devoted fans and a fascinating read for anyone who wants to understand how the Disney movie became a pop culture phenomenon.

Running with Scissors meets Bewitched in this irresistible memoir, as Philip Smith describes growing up in 1960s Miami with his decorator father, who one day discovers he has the miraculous power to talk to the dead and heal the sick.

After a full day of creating beautiful interiors for the rich and famous, Lew Smith would come home, take off his tie, and get down to his real work as a psychic healer who miraculously cured thousands of people. For his son, Philip, watching his father transform himself, at a moment's notice, from gracious society decorator into a healer with supernatural powers was a bit like living with Clark Kent and Superman.

Walking Through Walls is Philip Smith's astonishing memoir of growing up in a household where séances, talking spirits, and exorcisms were daily occurrences, and inexplicable psychic healings resulted in visitors suddenly discarding their crutches and wheelchairs or being cured of fatal diseases.

While there are benefits to having a miracle man in the house, Philip soon discovers the downside of living with a father who psychically knows everything he is doing. Surrounded by invisible spirits who tend to behave like nagging relatives, Philip looks for ways to escape his mystical home life--including forays into sex, surfing, and even Scientology.

By turns hilarious and profound, Walking Through Walls recounts Philip Smith's often bizarre but always magical coming of age in a household that felt like a cross between Lourdes and the set of Rosemary's Baby, and shows how he managed to map out his own identity in the shadow of a father who, truly, loomed larger than life itself.

What does it mean to be a "diva"? A shifting, increasingly loaded term, it has been used to both deride and celebrate charismatic and unapologetically fierce performers like Aretha Franklin, Divine, and the women of Labelle. In this brilliant, powerful blend of incisive criticism and electric memoir, Deborah Paredez--scholar, cultural critic, and lifelong diva devotee--unravels our enduring fascination with these icons and explores how divas have challenged American ideas about feminism, performance, and freedom.

American Diva journeys into Tina Turner's scintillating performances, Celia Cruz's command of the male-dominated salsa world, the transcendent revival of Jomama Jones after a period of exile, and the unparalleled excellence of Venus and Serena Williams. Recounting how she and her mother endlessly watched Rita Moreno's powerhouse portrayal of Anita in West Side Story and how she learned much about being bigger than life from her fabulous Tía Lucia, Paredez chronicles the celebrated and skilled performers who not only shaped her life but boldly expressed the aspiration for freedom among brown, Black, and gay communities. Paredez also traces the evolution of the diva through the decades, dismayed at the mid-aughts' commodification and juvenilizing of its meaning but finding its lasting beauty and power.

Filled with sharp insights and great heart, American Diva is a spirited tribute to the power of performance and the joys of fandom.

Be inspired by the amazing life of Stan Lee, the comic book genius who created Spider-Man, The Hulk and Iron Man!

Little Stan grew up in New York City. As a child, he loved reading books, poems and newspaper strips. And when he didn't have his head in a book, he was writing stories of his own.

After he graduated, Stan got his big break in the form of a job as an assistant at a small comic book publisher called Timely Comics. He started by helping the editors with their work, but before long, he was helping to write the comics. He contributed to a Captain America story but soon started to create his very own characters.

From the Fantastic Four and Spider-Man to The Hulk, Stan's superheroes were innovative and exciting. Even though they were super, they felt human, flaws and all. In the years that followed, he built a solid career at Timely Comics. With Stan's help, Timely Comics grew to become Marvel, the multi-million-dollar corporation behind some of the most successful Hollywood films, including The Avengers, Black Panther and Ant-Man.

Stan created a whole universe of connecting characters and stories which leapt off the page and into the hearts of millions of fans around the world!

This powerful book features stylish and quirky illustrations and extra facts at the back, including a biographical timeline with historical photos and a detailed profile of the comic book creator's life.

Little People, BIG DREAMS is a bestselling biography series for kids that explores the lives of outstanding people, from designers and artists to scientists and activists. All of them achieved incredible things, yet each began life as a child with a dream.

This empowering series of books offers inspiring messages to children of all ages, in a range of formats. The board books are told in simple sentences, perfect for reading aloud to babies and toddlers. The hardback and paperback versions present expanded stories for beginning readers. With rewritten text for older children, the treasuries each bring together a multitude of dreamers in a single volume.

You can also collect a selection of the books by theme in boxed gift sets. Activity books and a journal provide even more ways to make the lives of these role models accessible to children.

This book tells young children in a clear and fun way about Stan Lee's exciting journey from writing stories in his bedroom, to creating a fictional universe loved around the world.

Designed to uplift, entertain and encourage young writers and creators to follows their dreams. Inspire the next generation of outstanding people who will change the world with Little People, BIG DREAMS!

As a boy, Alexander ?Sandy? Calder was always fiddling with odds and ends, making objects for friends. When he got older and became an artist, his fiddling led him to create wire sculptures. One day, Sandy made a lion. Next came a lion cage. Before he knew it, he had an entire circus and was traveling between Paris and New York performing a brand-new kind of art for amazed audiences.

This is the story of Sandy's Circus, as told by Tanya Lee Stone with Boris Kulikov's spectacular and innovative illustrations. Calder's original circus is on permanent display at the Whitney Museum in New York City.

Based on the eclectic Western-Eastern teachings of Nakamura Tempu Sensei, this step-by-step introduction to Japanese yoga (Shin-shin-toitsu-do) presents stretching, healing, and meditation exercises designed for mind/body integration. It is the first book in English to detail the life and teachings of Mr. Nakamura. In Japanese yoga, which is based on mind and body unification principles, the ultimate goal is enhanced concentration, calmness, and willpower for a longer, healthier, and fuller life. H. E. Davey Sensei also shows how Japanese yoga relates to various classical Japanese arts as part of a tradition of spiritual practice with spiritual and aesthetic roots in India, Japan, and the West. Developed by Nakamura Tempu Sensei in the early 1900s from Indian Raja yoga, Japanese martial arts and meditation practices, as well as Western medicine and psychotherapy, Japanese yoga offers a new approach to experienced yoga students and a natural methodology that newcomers will find easy to learn. After a brief history of Shin-shin-toitsu-do, H. E. Davey Sensei presents Mr. Nakamura's Four Basic Principles to Unify Mind and Body. These principles relate the meditative experience to the movement of everyday living and thus make it a "dynamic meditation." Each of the Four Basic Principles is illustrated with step-by-step explanations of practical experiments. Readers are then introduced to different forms of seated and moving meditation, health exercises, and self-healing arts. All these are linked back to the Four Basic Principles and can enhance performance in art, music, business, sports, and other activities. Readers learn to use Japanese yoga techniques throughout the day, without having to sit on the floor or seek out a quiet space. Included at the end of the book are simple but effective stretching exercises, information about ongoing practice, and a glossary and reference section. Amply illustrated and cogently presented, "Japanese Yoga: The Way of Dynamic Meditation" belongs on every mind/body/spirit reading list.

"This collection of Grant's work is a great testament to not only what he did when he was here, but what he's still doing to impact others."--LeBron James

The definitive collection of beloved late journalist Grant Wahl's work--a masterclass in the art of sportswriting

After Grant Wahl died of an aortic aneurysm at the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, collapsing in his press seat during a quarterfinal match, tributes to Wahl poured in from around the globe. Wahl was beloved for good reason--he was kind, generous, and unflinching in the face of injustice. He was also one of the best sports journalists of his generation.

Spanning four decades of storytelling, World Class collects for the first time the finest writing of Grant Wahl, from op-eds for his college newspaper to twenty-five years of reporting at Sports Illustrated to his deeply personal work for Fútbol with Grant Wahl on Substack. Wahl was the multi-tool modern sportswriter: clear and direct; able to write long, short, or in between; cosmopolitan; socially aware.

Arranged thematically, World Class demonstrates how Wahl's career aligned with the evolution of sportswriting. Included are explorations of soccer subcultures from Buenos Aires and F.C. Barcelona to the dusty sandlots of Nacogdoches, Texas, as well as accounts of trophy lifts that have a first-draft-of-history definitiveness. Some pieces capture prodigies early in their careers, like LeBron James and Landon Donovan; others lift the voices of the women athletes to whom Wahl paid early attention--stars like Abby Wambach and Megan Rapinoe. The book showcases the daring and important positions Wahl took in Qatar in the weeks before he died, supporting migrant workers and LGBTQ+ people.

More than a collection of Grant Wahl's best work, World Class is a portrait of a journalist at the height of his powers, always evolving with the times, revealed by the stories he found and the unflinching way he told them.

An intimate and searching account of the life and legacy of one of America's towering educators, a woman who dared to center the progress of Black women and girls in the larger struggle for political and social liberation

When Mary MacLeod Bethune died, many of the tributes in newspapers around the country said the same thing: she should be on the "Mount Rushmore" of Black American achievement. Indeed, Bethune is the only Black American whose statue stands in Statuary Hall of the U.S. Capitol, and yet for most Americans, she remains a marble figure from the dim past. Now, seventy years later, Noliwe Rooks turns Bethune from stone to flesh, showing her to have been a visionary leader with lessons to still teach us as we continue on our journey towards a freer and more just nation.

Any serious effort to understand how the Black Civil Rights generation found role models, vision, and inspiration during their midcentury struggle for political power must place Bethune at its heart. Her success was unlikely: the 15th of 17 children and the first born into freedom, Bethune survived brutal poverty and caste subordination to become the first in her family to learn to read and to attend college. She gave that same gift to others when in 1904, at age 29, Bethune welcomed her first class of five girls to the Daytona, Florida school she herself had founded. In short order, the school enrolled hundreds of children and eventually would become the university that bears her name to this day. Bethune saw education as an essential dimension of the larger struggle for freedom, vitally connected to the vote and to economic self-sufficiency. She played a big game, and a long game, enrolling Eleanor Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and many other powerful leaders in her cause.

Rooks grew up in Florida, in Bethune's shadow: her grandparents trained to be teachers at Bethune-Cookman University, and her family vacationed at the all-Black beach that Bethune helped found in one of her many entrepreneurial projects for the community. The story of how--in a state with some of the highest lynching rates in the country--Bethune carved out so much space, and how she catapulted from there onto the national stage, is, in Rooks' hands, a moving and astonishing example of the power of a will and a vision that had few equals. Now, when the gains and losses in the long struggle for full Black equality in this country feel particularly near--and centered on the state of Florida--, it is an enormous gift to have this brilliant and lyrical reckoning with Bethune's journey from one of our own great educators and scholars of that same struggle.

A playful introduction to the designs of Charles and Ray Eames by Geisel-winning creator James Yang.

Charles was an architect. Ray was a painter. Together they made the perfect team. By using structure, shape, and color, they knew they could transform anything. And because they saw problem-solving as an adventure, they were able to incorporate playfulness into everything they designed.

Geisel Award-winning author and illustrator James Yang has created an exuberant story about Charles and Ray Eames, two of the most iconic designers of the Mid-century modern design movement, which will inspire readers to dream up new ways to see the world around them.

A humanitarian leader with more than two decades of experience working for the United Nations takes aim at the global food crisis--revealing how hunger anywhere affects lives everywhere and what steps we can take to change course.

At the turn of the twenty-first century, more than 150 countries pledged to eradicate hunger by 2030. But with only a few years left, we're far from reaching that goal. Instead, hunger is on the rise--America itself recently experienced levels of food insecurity not seen since the Great Depression. How could the richest nation in the world have so many people going hungry?

In The New Breadline, aid worker and activist Jean-Martin Bauer unravels this paradox. Bauer's family fled to America during the terrors of the Duvalier dictatorship in Haiti. Now on the brink of mass starvation, Haiti and its grim history inspired Bauer to make food justice his life's work. During his long career with the UN, Bauer learned firsthand that the problem of hunger is always political--and like all political conditions, hunger, he knew, was something we could work to change.

Traveling to the most hunger-prone countries across the globe--from Haiti, where elites hoard imported French cheese, to Madagascar, where foreign corporations are snatching up valuable land from local farmers, to right here in America, where the lines at food banks continue to grow--Bauer weaves profound personal insight with a keen understanding of the structural systems of racism, classism, and sexism that thwart true progress in the battle against hunger. The New Breadline is an inspiring call to action to end what he persuasively argues is one of the greatest threats to our society, boldly envisioning a world where we can always feed ourselves and one another.

Gorillas are among the most recognizable of the large charismatic mammals, but climate change and poaching has brought them to the brink of extinction.
Greg Cummings was the executive director of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund for seventeen years. He shares his fascinating experiences as a "wildlife Robin Hood"--raising money from the rich and famous and redistributing it to endangered gorillas and their habitats.
He met and enlisted the help of celebrities such as Sigourney Weaver, Arthur C. Clark, Douglas Adams, and Leonardo DiCaprio. This thirty-year worldwide journey moves from boardrooms in Manhattan and London to mountain treks in Rwanda and Congo.
Gorilla Tactics is sure to enchant readers with Greg's unique experiences, while sharing insight into the work it takes to save a species from extinction.

Early in Brooke Champagne's childhood, her Ecuadorian grandmother Lala (half bruja, half santa) strictly circumscribed the girl's present and future: become beautiful but know precisely when to use it; rationalize in English but love in God's first language, the superior Spanish; and if you must write, Dios help you, at least make a subject of me. Champagne's betrayal of these confounding dictates began before they were even spoken, and she soon started both writing and hiding the truth about whom she was becoming.

The hilarious, heartbreaking essays in this collection trace the evolutions of this girlhood of competing languages, ethnicities, aesthetics, politics, and class constraints against the backdrop of a boozy New Orleans upbringing. In these essays, Champagne and members of her family love poorly and hate well, whip and get whipped, pray and curse in two languages, steal from The Man and give to themselves, kiss where it hurts, poke where it hurts worse, and keep and spill each other's secrets--first face-to-face, then on the page. They believe and doubt and reckon with the stories they tell about themselves and where they come from, finally becoming most human, most alive, in their connections to one another.

A blazingly honest essay collection from a refreshing new voice exploring the in-between moments for Black women and girls, and what it means to simply exist

"At thirty-seven years old I can say Shenequa is a big name and I'm a big, bold woman."

Shenequa Golding doesn't aim to speak for all Black women. We're too vast, too vibrant, and too complicated. As an adult, Golding begins to own her boldness, but growing up, she found herself "kind of in the middle," fluctuating between not being the fly kid or the overachiever. Her debut collection of essays, A Black Girl in the Middle taps into life's wins and losses, representing the middle ground for Black girls and women.

Golding packs humor, curiosity, honesty, anger, and ultimately acceptance in 12 essays spanning her life in Queens, NY, as a first generation Jamaican American. She breaks down the 10 levels of Black Girl Math, from the hard glare to responses reserved for unfaithful boyfriends. She comes to terms with and heals from fraught relationships with her father, friends, and romantic partners. She takes the devastating news that she's a Black girl with a "flat ass" in stride, and adds squats to her routine, eventually. From a harrowing encounter in a hotel room leading her to explore celibacy (for now) to embracing rather than fearing the "Milli Vanilli" of emotions in hurt and anger, Golding embraces everything she's learned with wit, heart, and humility.

A Black Girl in the Middle is both an acknowledgment of the complexity and pride of not always fitting in and validation of what Black girlhood and womanhood can be.

Follows the stories of three young women activists of color fighting for some of today's most pressing movements of defunding the police, environmental justice, and arts education

Girls of color have always been on the front lines of the fight for equal rights--to vote, to learn, to live--even when they are the last to benefit from the outcomes of their work. In Don't Wait, journalist Sonali Kohli follows three teenagers' efforts to make their communities safer, healthier places.

Don't Wait highlights what propelled the teenagers into their activism to their experiences organizing and incorporates Q&As with important lessons from activists who have led the way.

The three teen activists include:

- Nalleli has lived across the street from an active oil well in South Los Angeles and at age 7, developed serious health problems. Nalleli and her mother take on an oil company and become environmental justice activists.

- Kahlila, following the murder of George Floyd and looking to help fight back, becomes involved with the Black Lives Matter movement in Los Angeles and fights to defund school police in one of the largest school police forces in the nation.

- Sonia, an accomplished singer grappling with finding an creative outlet in the pandemic, strives to increase access to arts education in schools across California.

As the young women transition from teen to adult activists, Don't Wait reflects on the powerful lessons they've learned in their activism while building movements in their communities that will continue to live on as they move forward.

Inspired by her transgender son, activist Jodie Patterson explores identity, gender, race, and authenticity to tell the real-life story of a family's history and transformation.

"A courageous and poetic testimony on family and the self, and the learning and unlearning we must do for those we love."--Janet Mock

In 2009, Jodie Patterson, mother of five and beauty entrepreneur, has her world turned upside down when her determined toddler, Penelope, reveals, "Mama, I'm not a girl. I am a boy." The Pattersons are a tribe of unapologetic Black matriarchs, scholars, financiers, Southern activists, artists, musicians, and disruptors, but with Penelope's revelation, Jodie realizes her existing definition of family isn't wide enough for her child's needs.

In The Bold World, we witness Patterson reshaping her own attitudes, beliefs, and biases, learning from her children, and a whole new community, how to meet the needs of her transgender son. In doing so, she opens the minds of those who raised and fortified her, all the while challenging cultural norms and gender expectations. Patterson finds that the fight for racial equality in which her ancestors were so prominent helped pave the way for the current gender revolution.

From Georgia to South Carolina, Ghana to Brooklyn, Patterson learns to remove the division between me and you, us and them, straight and queer--and she reminds us to celebrate her uncle Gil Scott Heron's prophecy that the revolution will not be televised. It will happen deeply, unequivocally, inside each and every one of us. Transition, we learn, doesn't just belong to the transgender person. Transition, for the sake of knowing more and becoming more, is the responsibility of and gift to all.

The Bold World is the result, an intimate and exquisite story of authenticity, courage, and love.

Praise for The Bold World

"In The Bold World, Jodie Patterson makes a case for respecting everyone's gender identity by way of showing how she came to accept her son, Penelope. In tying that struggle to the struggle for race rights in this country during her own childhood, she paints a vivid picture of the permanent work of social justice."--Andrew Solomon, bestselling author of The Noonday Demon and Far from the Tree