by Grace Norwich (2005)
Tells the whole story behind how Ashlee found her voice and went from being America's favorite little sister to being a chart-topping superstar. Before she was a famous musician with a number one album and a hit reality show, before she was a familiar face on MTV and in magazines, even before she was a character on the TV series Seventh Heaven, Ashlee Simpson was a little girl in Texas with a lot of spunk and personality. An accomplished ballet dancer on the outside and a punk rocker on the inside, Ashlee spent years quietly honing her talents while her parents helped her sister, Jessica, become a singing sensation. After getting a taste of the limelight while performing as a backup dancer for Jessica, Ashlee arrived in Hollywood ready to make her mark, and the rest is history. But while she has obviously come a long way from her Texas roots, Ashlee still has that unmistakable sparkle and individuality, which now set her apart from the rest of the pack of young female recording artists. Ashlee Simpson: Out of the Shadow and into the Spotlight tells the whole story behind how Ashlee found her voice and went from being America's favorite little sister to being a chart-topping superstar!
Jeri Chase Ferris
Recounts the life of Biddy Mason, a slave who found freedom in California in 1856, who practiced the philosophy of sharing as she nursed the sick, delivered babies, and started many philanthropic projects after becoming a wealthy landowner in Los Angeles.
Pat Rediger
Examines the lives of more than ten African American entertainers, including Josephine Baker, Sammi Davis, Jr., Susan Taylor, and Spike Lee, with the obstacles they each overcame.
Kirk Lake
"From the Tin Pan Alley roots of his debut through to the rococo arrangements of Want and the brassy Broadway standards of Judy Garland, Rufus Wainwright's work mixes innovation and tradition like no other contemporary pop performer. His private life, which, by choice or otherwise, he has lived in public, is equally incredible - and in its own, sometimes peculiar, often exaggerated way, has encompassed all three of the clichéd tenets of the popular recording artist (sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll) ... follows Wainwright's journey from child actor to profligate Hollywood pop star ... from playing to a handful of friends in a tiny Canadian café to triumphant sell-out shows at Carnegie Hall"--Jacket.
Eloise Greenfield
"A biography of Paul Robeson, who overcame racial discrimination to become a world-famous African American athlete, actor, singer, and civil rights activist"--Provided by publisher.