Helaine Becker

The most powerful pirate in history was a woman who was born into poverty in Guangzhou, China, in the early 1800s. When pirates attacked her town and the captain took a liking to her, she saw a way out. Zheng Yi Sao agreed to marry him only if she got an equal share of his business. When her husband died six years later, she took command of the fleet. Over the next decade, the pirate queen built a fleet of over 1,800 ships and 70,000 men. On land...

An examination of six fearsome creatures sets out to determine fact from fiction using scientific fact.

A showcase of robots inspired by animals shares detailed reports on machines that look and behave like such creatures as geckos, jellyfish, bats, and pill bugs.

When Darren Dirkowitz's super-secret spy journal falls into the wrong hands, his evil stepbrother Waldo threatens to expose it to the entire school unless Darren starts spying on kids at school for Waldo.

12-year-old Dany lives with his father, the scholarly Rob Judah, and his silent mother Rachel in the Stoon ghetto on the outskirts of Gottika. Under the ruthless Count Pol, the Stoon community are subject to military raids, prejudicial laws and restrictions on their culture and freedom. When Pol marries Dany's cousin Dalil, stoking further tension between Gottikans and Stoons, life gets harder still. Urged on by Dany, Rob Judah finally runs out of...

A captivating look at the life of a modern-day fossil hunter who makes the find of a lifetime. Wendy has an eye for the unusual and is skilled at finding things that others don't see. On a middle school field trip, she spots one of those unusual things - it's fossilized coral 100 million years old! Wendy's thrilled! And soon, she gets hooked on hunting fossils. She decides to turn her passion into her career and becomes known as the "fossil whisperer"...

Meet some gigantic prehistoric critters! A bug the size of a small crocodile? Or as large as a basketball player? As scary as it seems, supersized, insect-like creatures such as these roamed Earth long before humans. This peek into prehistory introduces seven of these fascinating megabugs - the ancestors of modern-day insects, spiders, crabs and other arthropods - which lived from 480 million to 47 million years ago. It explores when, where and how...

A fun introduction to prehistoric creatures that are not dinosaurs, and why! Everyone knows what a dinosaur is, right? Well, maybe not. Dinosaurs are actually just one type of extinct animal from prehistoric times. So, what sets them apart? Here, readers are introduced to ten prehistoric animals. Each one looks like a dinosaur. But, it's missing at least one key characteristic of all true dinosaurs. Animal by animal, each of those characteristics...

It's a holiday party at the Porcupine Cafe, and all the animals are there, singing out to Porcupine for their favourite treats. The bears arrive first and demand the traditional figgy pudding. But they are followed by puffins, who request fish; beavers asking for tasty twigs; moose, who demand tasty berries; and squirrels, who lobby for crunchy walnuts. What's a frenzied chef to do? This fun holiday romp will have kids and adults singing along --...

Introduces the different types of food zoo animals eat, with recipes from zoos around the world, including predator popsicles, digger's delight, and presto pesto sauce.