Most people can name some famous artists and recognize their best-known works. But what's behind all that painting, drawing, and sculpting? What was Leonardo da Vinci's snack of choice while he painted Mona Lisa's mysterious smile? Why did Georgia O'Keeffe find bones so appealing? Who called Diego Rivera "Frog-Face"? And what is it about artists that makes both their work and their lives so fascinating—to themselves, to their curious neighbors,

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It's no secret that Beethoven went deaf, that Mozart had constant money problems, and that Gilbert and Sullivan wrote musicals. But what were these people-and other famous musicians-really like' What did they eat' What did they wear' How did they spend their time' And-possibly most interesting of all-what did their neighbors think' Discover the fascinating and often humorous stories of twenty famous musicians-people of all shapes, sizes, temperaments,...

Presents twenty true stories of athletes--mostly admirable, occasionally quirky--whose physical accomplishments create a world of thrills and spills.

A biography of the African-American woman who overcame crippling polio as a child to become the first woman to win three gold medals in track in a single Olympics.

"Describes the 1963 March on Washington, helmed by Martin Luther King, Jr., where over two hundred thousand people gathered to demand equal rights for all races, and explains why this event is still important in American history today."--

Profiles many of history's most noteworthy scientists, from Zhang Heng and Isaac Newton to Albert Einstein and Barbara McClintock, sharing lesser-known facts about their favorite activities, relationships, and eccentricities.

Leonardo da Vinci's notebooks are mind-boggling evidence of a fifteenth-century scientific genius standing at the edge of the modern world, basing his ideas on observation and experimentation. This book will change children's ideas of who Leonardo was and what it means to be a scientist.

Isaac Newton was not only briiliant, but secretive, vindictive and obsessive. Here is a portrait of the man, contradictions and all, that places him against the backdrop of seventeenth-century England, a time of plague, the Great Fire of London, and two revolutions.

A collection of stories, folklore, poetry, and songs from Ireland.

Chronicles the life of Jim Henson, describing how he pushed the boundaries of entertainment and brought the art of puppets to a new level with the creation of his Muppets.