A pioneer adventure perfect for fans of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House series! On Libby Mitchell’s tenth birthday, she and her parents climb into a covered wagon and set off on a journey that takes them two months and a thousand miles. Their trip from Virginia to the deep woods of Michigan is hard, but it is exciting, too. And at its end lies their new home—a place that is rugged, wild, and full of promise. History Stepping Stones now feature updated content that emphasizes Common Core and today’s renewed interest in nonfiction. Perfect for home, school, and library bookshelves!

• Illustrated natural history information on a popular backyard visitor, covering feeding behaviors, courtship, nest building, raising young, migration, and more • Focus on Baltimore and Bullock's Orioles but with information on every North American species • How to make your yard or garden more attractive to orioles The brilliant flash of an oriole's orange or yellow plumage against a black background is a welcome sign of spring for birders and backyard bird-watchers alike. Learn more about one of the most colorful and popular groups of birds in North America with this fact-filled guide.

A comprehensive, lavishly illustrated coffee-table book filled with behind-the-scenes stories and inserted memorabilia celebrating the legacy of the Baltimore Orioles, one of the most storied and iconic teams in baseball. Since their move from St. Louis in 1954, the Baltimore Orioles have been one of the most storied teams in baseball and home to legends like Brooks Robinson, Frank Robinson, Jim Palmer, Eddie Murray and Cal Ripken Jr. From the “Oriole Way” — which earned them eight Division Championships, six American League pennants, and three World Series Championships — to “Orioles Magic” at Memorial Stadium and Camden Yards, Baltimore Orioles: 60 Years is a comprehensive exploration of the team’s enduring legacy. Longtime sports journalist Jim Henneman takes us through the team’s colorful history as well as into the dugout and behind the plate to deliver unprecedented access, while legendary Orioles personalities and players offer anecdotes and firsthand memories. Complementing this comprehensive history are many rare and never-before-seen images from the Orioles’ archive, as well as replica ephemera, including vintage tickets, scorecards, posters, and more. Commemorating six decades of the franchise, Baltimore Orioles: 60 Years is a uniquely authoritative and engrossing visual history that is certain to appeal to baseball fans of all generations.

This guide to all things Baltimore Oriole covers the team's history as one of the American League's eight charter franchises, including the incredible legacy of Cal Ripken, Jr., memories from Memorial Stadium, and how singing "Thank God I'm a Country Boy" during the seventh-inning stretch has become a fan-favorite tradition. Author Dan Connolly has collected every essential piece of Orioles knowledge and trivia, as well as must-do activities, providing an entertaining and enlightening read for any Oriole fan.

Greedy owners, spoiled players, disillusioned fans -- all hallmarks of baseball in the 'nineties. Only in this case, it's the 1890s. We may think that business interests dominate the sport today, but baseball's early years were an even harsher and less sentimental age, when teams were wrenched from their cities, owners colluded and the ballplayers held out, and the National League nearly turned itself into an out-and-out cartel. Where They Ain't tells the story of that tumultuous time, through the prism of the era's best team, the legendary Baltimore Orioles, and its best hitter, Wee Willie Keeler, whose motto "Keep your eye clear, and hit 'em where they ain't" was wise counsel for an underdog in a big man's world. Under the tutelage of manager Ned Hanlon, the Orioles perfected a style of play known as "scientific baseball," featuring such innovations as the sacrifice bunt, the hit-and-run, the squeeze play, and the infamous Baltimore chop. The team won three straight pennants from 1894 to 1896 and played the game with snap and ginger. Burr Solomon introduces us to Keeler and his colorful teammates, the men who reinvented baseball -- the fierce third baseman John McGraw, the avuncular catcher Wilbert Robinson, the spunky shortstop Hughey Jennings, and the heartthrob outfielder Joe Kelley, who carried a comb and mirror in his hip pocket to groom himself between batters. But championships and color were not enough for the barons of baseball, who began to consolidate team ownership for the sake of monopoly profits. In 1899, the Orioles' owners entered into a "syndicate" agreement with the ambitious men who ran the Brooklyn Trolley Dodgers -- with disastrous results. The Orioles were destroyed (and the franchise folded), the city of Baltimore was relegated to minor-league status just when the city's industries were being swallowed up by national monopolies, and even Willie Keeler, a joyful innocent who wanted only to play ball, ultimately sold out as well. In Solomon's hands, the story of the Orioles' demise is a page-turning tale of shifting alliances, broken promises, and backstage maneuvering by Tammany Hall and the Brooklyn and Baltimore political machines on a scale almost unimaginable today. Out of this nefarious brew was born the American League, the World Series, and what we know as "modern baseball," but innocence was irretrievably lost. The fans of Baltimore, in fact, would have to wait more than half a century for the major leagues to return. Where They Ain't lays bare the all-too-human origins of our national game and offers a cautionary tale of the pastime at a century's end.

An authoritative and highly readable book on this popular species.