Who Was Jesus?

by Tomie dePaola

Published 5 February 2015
This fascinating addition to our best-selling Who Was...? Series presents young readers with a biography that covers what is known historically about Jesus and places his life in the context of his world when Jerusalem was part of the Roman Empire. In an even handed and easy to read...Read more

Who Was Seabiscuit?

by Tomie dePaola

Published 20 October 2015
In the middle of the worst depression in U.S. history, one young racehorse lifted a nation's spirits. Seabiscuit was born in 1933 on a farm in Kentucky. Though bred for racing, he was weak and undersized. He slept too long and ate too much. Against the odds, he began...Read more

Who Was Winston Churchill?

by Tomie dePaola

Published 21 April 2015
Born into aristocracy, Churchill cut his teeth as a young army officer in British India, the Sudan, and the Second Boer War. He rose in the ranks to First Lord of the Admiralty and was a staunch opponent of the encroaching German Nazis. Churchill served as Prime Minister of...Read more

Who Is Richard Branson?

by Tomie dePaola

Published 11 August 2015
What would you do with a billion dollars? This question gets a definitive answer from billionaire Richard Branson: do everything! Born into a wealthy family in London, Branson suffered from dyslexia and was a poor student. Still, his knack for business started early with a successful parakeet-breeding enterprise at...Read more

Who Was Woodrow Wilson?

by Tomie dePaola

Published 9 June 2015
First he was known as Tommy, then Woodrow, and eventually, Mr. President. Born on December 28, 1856, in Staunton, Virginia, Thomas Woodrow Wilson was a born leader. He was the president of Princeton University, served as governor of New Jersey after that, and was then elected president of the...Read more

Born in Connecticut in 1811, Harriet Beecher Stowe was an abolitionist, author, and playwright. Slavery was a major industry in the American South, and Stowe worked with the Underground Railroad to help escaped slaves head north towards freedom. The publication of her book, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, a scathing anti-slavery...Read more

Who Was Steve Irwin?

by Tomie dePaola

Published 19 May 2015
By popular demand, the 100th Who Was...? subject is Steve Irwin!

Steve Irwin did not have a typical childhood. Born in Melbourne, Australia, on February 22, 1962, he was raised on the wildlife park his parents owned. He cared for the animals and especially loved reptiles--he got a...Read more

Who Was Charles Dickens?

by Meg Belviso and Pam Pollack

Published 26 December 2014
As a child, Charles Dickens worked in a shoe polish factory where his gritty surroundings inspired some of the most memorable characters and settings in literary history. Known for his masterful storytelling in books like Oliver TwistGreat Expectations, and A Christmas Carol, Dickens toured the globe as one of the most...Read more

Who Was Robert Ripley?

by Tomie dePaola

Published 5 February 2015
Enter a world of shrunken heads, mystic holy men, shriveled aliens, and bizarre relics in the delightfully odd tale of Robert Ripley. Born in California, Ripley began his career as a sports cartoonist. He went on to chronicle global records and oddities in his weekly column, Believe It Or...Read more

Who Was Mother Teresa?

by Tomie dePaola

Published 5 May 2015
Born a humble girl in what is now Albania, Agnes Bojaxhiu lived a charitable life. She pledged herself to a religious order at the age of 18 and chose the name Sister Teresa, after the patron saint of missionaries. While teaching in India, where famine and violence had devastated...Read more

Who Is Jeff Kinney?

by Tomie dePaola

Published 18 August 2015
Even as a kid, everyone thought Jeff Kinney was talented. People loved his drawings, and when he went to college, his comic strip Igdoof was so popular that it spread to other universities! Still, Jeff faced challenges. His cartoons were rejected by syndicates that claimed his art was unprofessional....Read more

Who Is Derek Jeter?

by Tomie dePaola

Published 18 August 2015
When Derek Jeter was eight years old, he announced that he was going to play baseball for the New York Yankees. Jeter earned the attention of major league scouts in high school and was drafted to the New York Yankees in 1992. Named Rookie of the Year, he helped...Read more

Who Was Galileo?

by Tomie dePaola

Published 5 February 2015
Like Michelangelo, Galileo is another Renaissance great known just by his first name. A name that is synonymous with scientific achievement. Born in Pisa, Italy, in the sixteenth century, Galileo contributed to the era's great rebirth of knowledge. He invented a telescope with which he was able to observe...Read more

Who Was Julia Child?

by Carlene Hempel and Tomie dePaola

Published 6 October 2015
Born in California in 1912, Julia Child enlisted in the Army and met her future husband, Paul, during World War II. She discovered her love of French food while stationed in Paris and enrolled in Le Cordon Bleu cooking school after her service. Child knew that Americans would love...Read more

Who Was Sojourner Truth?

by Tomie dePaola

Published 29 December 2015
Almost 100 years before Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat, Sojourner Truth was mistreated by a streetcar conductor. She took him to court and won! Before she was Sojourner Truth, she was known simply as Belle. Born a slave in New York sometime around 1797, she...Read more