Contains individual stories, vintage photographs, and historic memorabilia to tell what life was like for these indomitable kids a century ago.

What do you think happened when James W. Marshall found gold in California? It was chaos! Hundreds of thousands of people flocked to California to find gold, and with their influx, a new state was born. It’s amazing how such a find would result in the creation of a state that still exists today. What’s the story of your state? How did it form?

From the author of Hellacious California!, deeply human stories of the California Gold Rush generation, full of brutality, tragedy, humor, and prosperity. In less than ten years, more than 300,000 people made the journey to California, some from as far away as Chile and China. Many of them were dreamers seeking a better life, like Mifflin Wistar Gibbs, who eventually became the first African American judge, and Eliza Farnham, an early feminist who founded California's first association to advocate for women's civil rights. Still others were eccentrics—perhaps none more so than San Francisco's self-styled king, Norton I, Emperor of the United States. As Gold Rush Stories relates the social tumult of the world rushing in, so too does it unearth the environmental consequences of the influx, including the destructive flood of yellow ooze (known as “slickens”) produced by the widespread and relentless practice of hydraulic mining. In the hands of a native son of the Sierra, these stories and dozens more reveal the surprising and untold complexities of the Gold Rush. “Seamlessly fuses academic rigor, original reporting and emotional intensity into one meditation on an era.... If the task of the historian is to be faithful to lost truths, then Noy's latest exploration succeeds on every level, and does so in a way that will keep readers wanting to dig deeper into the past.”—Scott Thomas Anderson, Sierra Lodestar “An original and lively look at all the usual suspects, plus bears, weather, women, Joaquín, disappointment and dissipation…. Exhaustively researched and highly entertaining.”—JoAnn Levy, author of They Saw the Elephant: Women in the California Gold Rush

Upon publication, Anita Silvey’s comprehensive survey of contemporary children’s literature, Children’s Books and Their Creators, garnered unanimous praise from librarians, educators, and specialists interested in the world of writing for children. Now The Essential Guide to Children’s Books and Their Creators assembles the best of that volume in one handy, affordable reference, geared specifically to parents, educators, and students. This new volume introduces readers to the wealth of children’s literature by focusing on the essentials — the best books for children, the ones that inform, impress, and, most important, excite young readers. Updated to include newcomers such as J. K. Rowling and Lemony Snicket and to cover the very latest on publishing and educational trends, this edition features more than 475 entries on the best-loved children’s authors and illustrators, numerous essays on social and historical issues, thirty personal glimpses into craft by well-known writers, illustrators, and critics, and invaluable reading lists by category. The Essential Guide to Children’s Books and Their Creators summarizes the canon of contemporary children’s literature, in a practical guide essential for anyone choosing a book for or working with children.

Children and teenagers experience Canada’s North in a way that adults do not. They have shaped its history, and yet how often are they asked to tell its story? Northern Kids is a collection of tales about the unforgettable young people of the Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut, and remote regions of the western provinces. Based on personal interviews and thorough archival research, each true story is narrated in the voice of a young northerner. Travel along with these kids as they hunt for caribou or hidden gold, mush a dogsled team, climb over the Chilkoot Pass, float down the Yukon River on a homemade raft, and explore the Arctic tundra through every season. While Northern Kids celebrates the independent spirit of young northerners—their wilderness skills, sense of humour and love of fun—it also takes an unflinching look at their hardships. At the end of each story, a section called “What do we know for sure?” offers the reader detail and historical context. This is the fourth book in the Courageous Kids series, which includes Kidmonton: True Stories of River City Kids, Rocky Mountain Kids, Island Kids, and now Northern Kids. For more about this exciting series, please visit www.courageouskids.ca.

Offers advice and guidelines on how to expand a child's world through books and reading, introducing three thousand teacher-recommended book titles, craft ideas, projects, recipes, and reading club tips.