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Frederick McKinley Jones was a brilliant inventor and the first African American to receive the National Medal of Technology. He pioneered the science of refrigeration by designing and creating portable air-cooling units for trucks. These early refrigerators revolutionized food transportation, but more importantly, they helped preserve medicine, blood, and rations during World War II. Readers of this unique play will explore Jones'life on stage. Historical photographs highlight key points to Jones'story. Stage directions, costume and prop notes, and character descriptions ensure readers will be able to perform with ease.

A NSTA Best STEM BookExplore the extraordinary achievement of Cyrus Field and one of the greatest engineering feats of the 19th century: laying a transatlantic telegraph cable to create instant communication between two continents.Cyrus Field had a big dream to connect North America and the United Kingdom with a telegraph line, which would enable instant communication. In the mid-1800s, no one knew if it was possible. That didn't dissuade Cyrus, who set out to learn about undersea cables and built a network of influential people to raise money and create interest in his project. Cyrus experienced numerous setbacks: many years of delays and failed attempts, millions of dollars lost, suspected sabotage, technological problems, and more. But Cyrus did not give up and forged ahead, ultimately realizing his dream in the summer of 1866. Mary Morton Cowan brilliantly captures Cyrus's life and his steadfast determination to achieve his dream.

In July of 1848, the fight for women's right to vote in the United States began with a bang. In this innovative play, readers will be transported to the birth of this crucial movement, the Seneca Falls convention. The play features a cast of important historical figures, including Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Jane Hunt, Martha Wright, Mary Ann M'Clintock, and Frederick Douglass. Historical photographs illustrate the true story of these early feminists. Stage directions, costume and prop notes, and character descriptions guide readers through the performance with ease. Readers will experience this important moment in United States history firsthand with this lively play.

From 1908 until 1954, Donald Baxter MacMillan spent nearly 50 years exploring the Arctic—longer than anyone else. Growing up near the ocean, and orphaned by 12, MacMillan forged an adventurous life. Mary Morton Cowan focuses on the vital role MacMillan played in Robert Peary's 1908-09 North Pole Expedition, as well as his relationships with explorers Peary, Matthew Henson, and Richard Byrd. She follows his long and distinguished career, including daring adventures, contributions to environmental science and to the cultural understanding of eastern Arctic natives. Working closely with the Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum at Bowdoin College, Cowan showcases many MacMillan documents and archival photographs, many MacMillan's own in this winner of the John Burroughs Nature Books for Young Readers Award.