Updated for young readers by John Merriman, this book describes a history that begins with the origins of mankind and tells of significant people and events of every age through the late twentieth century.

What would happen if sixteen sea creatures met in a tournament? Who will be the ocean champion? Who do you think would win? --

Describes the structure and behavior of various carnivorous plants, including the Venus fly trap, sundew, pitcher plant, and bladderwort.

Presents an overview of the fashion and dress, diet, hygiene, medicine, and other cultural aspects of the ancient Chinese.

"Learn what it takes to get started in the world of Minecraft, from gathering resources to building your first structures."--

"No one knows where the term Underground Railroad came from--there were no trains or tracks, only "conductors" who helped escaping slaves to freedom. Including real stories about "passengers" on the "Railroad," this book chronicles slaves' close calls with bounty hunters, exhausting struggles on the road, and what they sacrificed for freedom. With black-and-white illustrations throughout and a sixteen-page black-and-white photo insert, the Underground...

Presents the stories of three animal workers, a dog that helps stranded dolphins, a monkey that aids a paralyzed man, and a rat that sniffs out land mines.

In this lyrical, unsentimental, and compelling memoir, the son of a black African father and a white American mother searches for a workable meaning to his life as a black American. It begins in New York, where Barack Obama learns that his father, a figure he knows more as a myth than as a man, has been killed in a car accident. This sudden death inspires an emotional odyssey - first to a small town in Kansas, from which he retraces the migration...

A history of lighthouses that served as traffic signals and maps.

Often referred to but rarely read, The Communist Manifesto is one of the great documents of world history. Written by Marx and Engels and published in London in 1848 (in German originally), it presented a totally different view of social and political organization, as revolutionaary as Darwin's On the Origin of Species. The Manifesto's effect on world politics was incalculable, but though it might seem to have been discredited by the late 20th century,...