Deborah Kent – författare

People who are blind learn ways to use their senses of touch and hearing in order to sense the world around them. Readers will learn about the tools they use, including canes and seeing eye dogs, to travel and to be independent. First-hand stories of children who are blind help readers get a personal look at some kids who "see" the world in a different way.

The world is quieter if you are deaf. What is that like? How do people who are deaf or hard of hearing communicate? How do videophones work? Readers learn all about sign language, hearing aids, and the latest technology that helps people who are deaf interact with the people in their lives.

Many people who are blind learn Braille in order to read. This innovative code allows them to read everything from popular books to maps and signs as well as write their own books? Readers will learn the history of Braille, how it has developed, and how it is used by some young people featured in this book.

For people who are deaf, learning language is different. Many learn sign language to let people know what they are thinking or feeling. They motion with their hands, faces, and bodies to communicate? Readers will learn the history of sign language, how it is used today, and how it is the first language for a special fourth-grade girl.

"What are we over here fighting for?" An American soldier asked this question during the Vietnam War. Many other American soldiers and citizens wondered the same thing. The conflict began when the United States sent armed forces to defend South Vietnam against Communist North Vietnam. It was supposed to be a brief military operation, but it ended as a bloody, twelve-year conflict in which thousands of American soldiers were killed. Author Deborah Kent examines this tragic and controversial period in American history from the first Marines arriving at Da Nang to the final airlift out of Saigon.

On April 19, 1775, American militiamen gathered at the village center in Lexington to face the coming British soldiers. No one knows who fired the initial shot, but that first blaze of gunfire signaled the beginning of the Revolutionary War. Only a year after the first battle, the American colonies declared their independence from Britain, but the struggle for freedom would cost the lives of many men and women. From the first boycott of the Stamp Act to the final battle at Yorktown, the American Revolution shaped a new nation and introduced an era of democracy to the United States of America.

Before World War II, Japanese Americans worked hard to adapt to American life while creating tight-knit communities. But after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, everything changed. The U.S. government sent 120,000 Americans of Japanese descent into internment camps. Learn the sad history of the camps, the reasons behind their creation, how the internees made the best of their deplorable situation, and how they finally received an official apology from the US government.

Every time women vote, they should thank Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Stanton''s unyielding efforts to attain the vote for American women finally paid off in 1920, after her death, with the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution. Enhanced by primary sources, images, and sidebars, this inspiring biography proves that with enough passion and commitment, change can occur.

They were two days that changed the world. The 1848 Seneca Falls Convention was the first of its kind to address the topic of women’s rights. Featuring excerpts from primary sources, images, and sidebars, this informative volume describes the low status held by nineteenth-century women, and how a handful of key players sought to achieve equal rights during this convention that spawned a greater movement.

In 1959, two years before she retired from teaching, Dr. Isabelle Grant set off on a yearlong journey around the world with Oscar, her long white cane, in her hand. She had been totally blind for the past twelve years. In Crooked Paths Made Straight, she shares the story of her journey during which she visited twenty-three countries from Great Britain to Fiji. In Karachi, she traveled the streets by rickshaw and struggled to master the Urdu language. In India, she explored the Taj Mahal, and in Burma she slept in a room where lizards raced up and down the walls. At a time when both women and blind people were generally seen as too helpless for solo travel, Grant fearlessly defied conventions. A dedicated teacher with a lifelong commitment to learning, her mission was to learn all she could about education in the countries she visited, in particular the education provided to blind children. Completed in 1965, Crooked Paths Made Straight recounts Grants journey, a story of dreams deferred that did not shrivel but sprang to life again and again.