"Oh, be quiet, Buster," Phillip grumbled into his pillow.
— from Earthquake!
Most acclaimed
Earthquake!
Earthquake! describes the devastating earthquake and ensuing fire that destroyed much of San Francisco in 1906. Amid the destruction, fires, and fear, the 1906 San Francisco earthquake brings people together. Rich and poor, neighbors and strangers, all are united in helping one another to save their city. The Great San Francisco Earthquake of 1906 is the most damaging earthquake in American history. San Francisco and surrounding cities were violently shaken by seismic waves produced by the magnitude 7.8 earthquake. After the earthquake, subsequent fires destroyed almost the entire city of San Francisco. General Frederick Funston declared martial law, and finally got the fire under control by dynamiting blocks of buildings around the fire to create fire breaks. The 1906 earthquake also revealed the existence and significance of the San Andreas fault to earth scientists, who then gave birth to the science of earthquakes. Kate Wilson is a published author and an editor of several children’s books. Some of her published credits include: Earthquake!: San Francisco, 1906 (Stories of America), Foster Children: Where They Go And How They Get On (Supporting Parents) and Writer’s Handbook Guide to Writing for Children. Courtney Studio is a published author and an illustrator of several children’s books. Some of her published credits include: Earthquake!: San Francisco, 1906 (Stories of America), I Can Read About Earthquakes and Volcanoes (I Can Read About Series) and I Can Read About Weather (I Can Read About Series). Alex Haley, as General Editor, wrote the introduction.
Victoria
When Queen Victoria died in 1901, she had ruled for nearly sixty-four years. She was a mother of nine and grandmother of forty-two and the matriarch of royal Europe through her children’s marriages. To many, Queen Victoria is a ruler shrouded in myth and mystique, an aging, stiff widow paraded as the figurehead to an all-male imperial enterprise. But in truth, Britain's longest-reigning monarch was one of the most passionate, expressive, humorous and unconventional women who ever lived, and the story of her life continues to fascinate. A. N. Wilson's exhaustively researched and definitive biography includes a wealth of new material from previously unseen sources to show us Queen Victoria as she’s never been seen before. Wilson explores the curious set of circumstances that led to Victoria's coronation, her strange and isolated childhood, her passionate marriage to Prince Albert and his pivotal influence even after death and her widowhood and subsequent intimate friendship with her Highland servant John Brown, all set against the backdrop of this momentous epoch in Britain’s history — and the world’s. Born at the very moment of the expansion of British political and commercial power across the globe, Victoria went on to chart a unique course for her country even as she became the matriarch of nearly every great dynasty of Europe. Her destiny was thus interwoven with those of millions of people — not just in Europe but in the ever-expanding empire that Britain was becoming throughout the nineteenth century. The famed queen had a face that adorned postage stamps, banners, statues and busts all over the known world. Wilson's Victoria is a towering achievement, a masterpiece of biography by a writer at the height of his powers.