Emily Arnold McCully

"Even by 1800s standards, Ada Byron Lovelace had an unusual upbringing. Her strict mother worked hard at cultivating her own role as the long-suffering ex-wife of bad-boy poet Lord Byron while raising Ada in isolation. Tutored by the brightest minds, Ada developed a hunger for mental puzzles, mathematical conundrums, and scientific discovery that kept pace with the breathtaking advances of the industrial and social revolutions taking place in Europe....

Told she cannot step over the line to play school with the older girls, Min builds a catapult and flies over it, instead.

"Pete likes Bunny, the new girl in his class; and despite teasing from classmates, Bunny likes Pete too"--

This book is based on the real life of Etzel von Oeringen, known as Strongheart, whose hugely popular movies introduced Americans to the German shepherd. The breed, developed in Germany at the end of the nineteenth century, was highly intelligent, brave, and loyal, and was adoped by the German army and police. Larry Trimble, a pioneer movie director and animal trainer, was auditioning dogs to star in a movie when he first encountered Etzel in a...

"Although it was not always easy for musician Franz Schubert to practice his music, he was supported immensely by his friends, who believed in his talent and wanted the world to hear his work."-- "Franz Schubert was only eleven when he auditioned for the Emperor's Choir School in Vienna, a place where everyone loved music. Franz barely spoke a word, but he sang like an angel, and his friends took to calling him "Little Mushroom" because he was small....