This all-new series title covers the entire Empire State, including a bizarre cemetery on 400 acres in the Bronx and a renowned restaurant in Rochester known as the Home of the Garbage Plate. If you can’t do it here, you can’t do it anywhere!
Where in Manhattan did George Washington sleep? Where was Teddy Roosevelt born? Where did James Monroe die? Where is the birthplace of the Twist? Where was Ponzi schemer Bernard Madoff 's multi-million-dollar penthouse? Where is the site of the country's first traffic fatality? These tidbits are among the more than2,000 fascinating entries in All Around the Town: Amazing Manhattan Facts and Curiosities, the definitive guide to historic New York. All Around the Town brings the city's history to life, street by street, building by building, in all its diversity. The entries, organized in an easy-to-use format by street address, were culled from a number of sources-histories, biographies, newspapers, guidebooks, and maps. They range from amusing anecdotes to familiar and not-so familiar historical events, from the Dutch New Amsterdam period to the present day. It is a truly unique guidebook for its historical viewpoint and will delight those looking for a glimpse of New York City beyond Madison Avenue and Broadway. The second edition has been revised and updated for a new millennium, reflecting a constantly changing city, and is supplemented with additional anecdotes and more than a hundred new pictures and illustrations. It is even easier to use, with cross-street information, a more portable trim size, and 300 new and updated places of interest.
Discover Nebraska’s curious underside with this oddly entertaining little guide! Travelers with a taste for the bizarre, tacky, and hilarious can visit the Avoca Quack-Off, learn about the inland Linoma Lighthouse, view a Roller Skating Museum, and pay a visit to the world’s largest covered wagon. Only true Cornhuskers could capture the essence of these and other authentic Nebraska phenomena, and Rick Yoder and David Harding do their home state proud.
A fun, accessible read for travelers and non travelers alike Vermont Curiosities is part zany Vermont guidebook and part Who's Who of unusual and unsung heroes, this compendium of the state's quirks and characters will amuse Vermont residents and visitors alike.
"New York wouldn't be New York without the subway. This one-time engineering marvel that united and expanded the city has been a cultural touchstone for the last 114 years. Somehow though, there has never been a book that celebrates the subway from the scars it left on the city's fabric to the romantic fantasies it unleashed. Subway will convey a sense of wonder and fun about the world's largest transit system. The book will include a complete, concise history of the subway beginning with the technical obstacles and corruption that impeded plans for an underground rail line in the late 1800s, and the visionary and sometimes wacky schemes put forward in that era for subterranean and elevated transport. It will also tell how additional lines were built and how three independent subway systems were merged, creating the mishmash of numbered and lettered lines we have today.Interspersed throughout will be sidebars and stand-alone sections including profiles of characters that helped make the subway what it is (including the mostly forgotten August Belmont Jr., a flamboyant financier who bankrolled the first subway); graphics and imagery showing the evolution of subway cars, tokens and MetroCards, graffiti, and even subway etiquette ads; how the subway has been characterized in movies, television, and music; a look at abandoned cars and stations and more. Packed with compelling stories, fascinating facts and anecdotes, vivid portraits of the people who made the subway and those who saved it, all supplemented with engrossing imagery and a dynamic design, Subway will be a visual feast and must-have gift book, perfect for any coffee table"--
LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD • YALSA EXCELLENCE IN NONFICTION FINALIST • A ROBERT F. SIBERT HONOR BOOK This beautifully illustrated, oversized guide to the people and technology of the moon landing by award-winning author/illustrator John Rocco (illustrator of the Percy Jackson series) is a must-have for space fans, classrooms, and tech geeks. Everyone knows of Neil Armstrong's famous first steps on the moon. But what did it really take to get us there? The Moon landing is one of the most ambitious, thrilling, and dangerous ventures in human history. This exquisitely researched and illustrated book tells the stories of the 400,000 unsung heroes--the engineers, mathematicians, seamstresses, welders, and factory workers--and their innovations and life-changing technological leaps forward that allowed NASA to achieve this unparalleled accomplishment. From the shocking launch of the Russian satellite Sputnik to the triumphant splashdown of Apollo 11, Caldecott Honor winner John Rocco answers every possible question about this world-altering mission. Each challenging step in the space race is revealed, examined, and displayed through stunning diagrams, experiments, moments of crisis, and unforgettable human stories. Explorers of all ages will want to pore over every page in this comprehensive chronicle detailing the grandest human adventure of all time!
Questions and questioning are key skills in successful learning. The original Q Tasks was instrumental in showing teachers how to give students the tools they need to develop their own questions and build critical thinking and inquiry skills. This new, totally revised edition continues to nurture and advance these crucial skills, and also offers Q-task extensions that introduce digital components that facilitate collaboration and are designed to appeal to tech-savvy students. More than 100 practical, flexible exercises in this remarkable book provide a smorgasbord of choices for teachers to use to help students formulate good questions in an information-rich environment. They put the students at the centre of their own learning as they build the library and research skills that are essential to our information age. Teachers will find innovative ways to help students go beyond memorization and rote learning of facts to focus on personal understanding, and true ownership of the learning experience.
In 'American Historical and Literary Curiosities, Second Series, Complete', J. Jay Smith brings together a fascinating collection of autographs and other historical artifacts from the American Revolution. Through facsimiles of these documents, readers can see firsthand the signatures of some of the most important figures in American history, including George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin. A must-read for anyone interested in the Revolution or in the lives of these great men.