Jim Whiting

The Atlanta Falcons know how to fly high. Through narrative nonfiction, timelines, and Fun Facts, readers will engage with the history and superstars of the Atlanta Falcons like never before.

Presents a brief biography of Thucydides who wrote History of the Peloponnesian War and provides information on background and the importance of his book as the first work of scientific history.

Until she was thirteen, Joan of Arc led a normal life. Then she began hearing voices. She believed these voices spoke for God. At first, they told her to be a good girl. A few years later, they told her that her destiny was to save France from its English invaders. Joan s inspirational leadership helped the French to defeat the English at the city of Orleans. Soon afterward, she persuaded the crown prince Charles to become King of France. A few months...

Julius Caesar is one of the most famous figures in ancient Rome. He was born into a turbulent era, when different factions were trying to control the government. He survived and began a steady rise in importance. He became a very successful military commander who added more than 200,000 square miles to the territories under Rome s control. But his triumphs created powerful enemies in Rome. They wanted to strip him of his power. He defeated those enemies...

One of the most famous trials in U.S. history took place in a tiny town in Tennessee in 1925. Dayton was the site of what became known as the Scopes Monkey Trial.The defendant, John T. Scopes, was accused of violating a recently passed state law. This law made it illegal to teach the theory of evolution. Under most circumstances, few people would have paid any attention to the trial.Several of Daytons leading citizens saw a chance to put their town...

In 1868, Impressionist painter Claude Monet was desperate. Though he had been painting for a decade, he was living in poverty. He had to support his girlfriend and infant son on his meager earnings. His relatives refused to help him out, so he begged for money from his friends, telling them that his situation seemed hopeless. Yet just over two decades later, with brisk sales through an art dealer, Monet had become wealthy and famous. People came...

In the middle of the fourteenth century, a terrible and mysterious plague swept across Europe and Asia. One in every three Europeans died during the five years that it terrified the continent. People tried all sorts of ways to avoid catching the Black Death. They carried flowers, burned incense, fired cannons, and rang church bells. They nailed whole families in their homes to try to keep the disease from spreading. Nothing seemed to help. The death...

Can you spot a Jacksonville Jaguars fan? Through narrative nonfiction, timelines, and Fun Facts, readers will engage with the history and superstars of the Jacksonville Jaguars like never before.

Giuseppe Verdi was born in obscurity in a tiny Italian village in 1813. When he died in 1901, hundreds of thousands of people turned out to pay their respects to the man whom many people consider as the best opera composer of all time. His career spanned more than half a century and included such successes as Rigoletto, La Traviata, Il Trovatore, Otello, Falstaff, and Aida, the most often-performed work at New York s Metropolitan Opera. Yet when he...

From an early age, Galileo Galilei was curious about the world around him. He began conducting scientific experiments. No one had ever done that before. He invented many useful devices, such as improved clocks and tools to help sailors find their way at sea. His greatest fame came after he invented a more powerful version of the telescope. This new telescope allowed him to observe the skies in more detail than anyone before him. His observations...