Relates the stories of thirteen heroes or events in nineteenth-century Texas history, including Cabeza de Vaca, Sam Houston and the Alamo.

When a drought dries up his perfect river home, Alamo the alligator sets off to find a new place to live.

This picture book tells you about some of the great events of Texas history and the kinds of people who made events.

Hauntings lurk and spirits linger in the Lone Star State Reader, beware! Turn these pages and enter the world of the paranormal, where ghosts and ghouls alike creep just out of sight. Author Alan Brown shines a light in the dark corners of Texas and scares those spirits out of hiding in this thrilling collection. From tales of haunted hotels like the Von Minden and The Beckham, to a creek where a woman’s screams can still be heard to this day, and the shadowy figures still stalking the Alamo, these stories of strange occurrences will keep you glued to the edge of your seat. Around the campfire or tucked away on a dark and stormy night, this big book of ghost stories is a hauntingly good read.

The story of Texas is the story of struggle and triumph in a land of extremes. It is a story of drought and flood, invasion and war, boom and bust, and of the myriad peoples who, over centuries of conflict, gave rise to a place that has helped shape the identity of the United States and the destiny of the world. “I couldn’t believe Texas was real,” the painter Georgia O’Keeffe remembered of her first encounter with the Lone Star State. It was, for her, “the same big wonderful thing that oceans and the highest mountains are.” Big Wonderful Thing invites us to walk in the footsteps of ancient as well as modern people along the path of Texas’s evolution. Blending action and atmosphere with impeccable research, New York Times best-selling author Stephen Harrigan brings to life with novelistic immediacy the generations of driven men and women who shaped Texas, including Spanish explorers, American filibusters, Comanche warriors, wildcatters, Tejano activists, and spellbinding artists—all of them taking their part in the creation of a place that became not just a nation, not just a state, but an indelible idea. Written in fast-paced prose, rich with personal observation and a passionate sense of place, Big Wonderful Thing calls to mind the literary spirit of Robert Hughes writing about Australia or Shelby Foote about the Civil War. Like those volumes it is a big book about a big subject, a book that dares to tell the whole glorious, gruesome, epically sprawling story of Texas.

The #1 New York Times bestselling author of Texas Rich continues the Coleman family saga that’s “fine fare for Fern Michaels’s fans!” (The Philadelphia Inquirer). Built before World War II by domineering patriarch Seth Coleman, Sunbridge, the magnificent Austin, Texas, empire, now belongs to Moss and Billie’s daughter, Maggie. She’s invited the whole family—and several hundred guests—to a Fourth of July barbecue in celebration of the renewed sense of family pride she’s determined to forge. But as loved ones come together, they bring old resentments and new temptations destined to generate more than a little heat. And as Maggie hopes to be accepted as mistress of Sunbridge, she also struggles to be a good mother to her resentful son Cole and her broken-hearted daughter, Sawyer. Then there is her sister, Susan, a renowned musician who arrives home for the most terrifying performance of her life. And in the midst of it all is Maggie’s decision to divorce Cranston Tanner and her love for another man—a love that could cost her everything . . . Praise for Texas Rich “Fascinating, interesting, and exciting. One of those rare books, the kind the reader doesn’t want to end. A real winner!” —Green Bay Press Gazette “A big, rich book in every way . . . I think Fern Michaels has struck oil with this one.” —Patricia Matthews “A steaming, sprawling saga . . . As always, Fern Michaels writes a full story with bigger-than-life characters we would look forward to meeting.” —Romantic Times

Every area of the world can be mapped out for adventure, and brilliant babies love the sophistication of traveling by train.