Title search results
Showing 1 - 20 of 192 items
The 57 bus: a true story of two teenagers and the crime that changed their lives
By Dashka Slater. 2017
One teenager in a skirt. One teenager with a lighter. One moment that changes both of their lives forever. If…
it weren't for the 57 bus, Sasha and Richard never would have met. Both were high school students from Oakland, California, one of the most diverse cities in the country, but they inhabited different worlds. Sasha, a white teen, lived in the middle-class foothills and attended a small private school. Richard, a black teen, lived in the crime-plagued flatlands and attended a large public one. Each day, their paths overlapped for a mere eight minutes. But one afternoon on the bus ride home from school, a single reckless act left Sasha severely burned, and Richard charged with two hate crimes and facing life imprisonment. The case garnered international attention, thrusting both teenagers into the spotlight. For junior and senior high readers. 2017.Real justice: sentenced to life at seventeen : the story of David Milgaard (Real justice)
By Cynthia J Faryon. 2009
David Milgaard was a kid who got into lots of trouble. Unfortunately, that made it easy for the Saskatoon police…
to brand him as a murderer. At seventeen, David was arrested, jailed, and convicted for the rape and murder of a young nursing assistant, Gail Miller. Throughout his twenty-three years in prison, David maintained that he was innocent and refused to admit to the crime, even though it meant he was never granted parole. Finally, through the incredible determination of his mother and new lawyers who believed in him, David was released and proven not guilty. This is the true story of how bad decisions, tunnel vision, poor representation, and outright lying and coercion by those within the justice system caused a tragic miscarriage of justice. For junior high and older readers. 2009.Real justice: guilty of being weird : the story of Guy Paul Morin (Real justice)
By Cynthia J Faryon. 2012
The story of Guy Paul Morin, who was wrongly convicted of a little girl's murder. It took ten years and…
the just-developed science of DNA testing to finally clear his name. This book tells his story, showing how the justice system not only failed to help an innocent young man, but conspired to convict him. For junior high readers and older. 2013, c2012.Duped!: true stories of the world's best swindlers (It actually happened series ; #1)
By Andreas Schroeder. 2011
Schroeder uncovers the facts behind eight of the most outrageous scams of all time. Read about a Stone Age tribe…
discovered in the jungles of the Philippines, lost documents written by Shakespeare, and a 1938 radio broadcast that reported that something strange has crashed into a field in New Jersey – and that hostile Martians then started attacking! Grades 4-7. c2011. (It actually happened series ; 1)Case files: 40 murders and mysteries solved by science
By Larry Verstraete. 2011
A killer has been caught, convicted, and sentenced, the case closed, all in 114 days. No one suspected – least…
of all the boy on death row – that it would take almost 50 years for a tiny piece of scientific evidence to answer the question: was he really the murderer? 40 amazing stories of how scientists solve crimes, reveal identities, untangle evidence, and discover the truth. Grades 5-8. Winner of the 2013 Silver Birch Non-Fiction Honour Book Award. 2011.A thousand years of pirates
By William Gilkerson. 2009
Introduces the major characters and incidents that connect the scattered history of seagoing bandits, including England's "Sea Dog" Francis Drake,…
the "pirate queen of Ireland" Granuaile, and Scotland's Captain Kidd. Describes their high-seas adventure and skullduggery, sea chases and bloody battles, dangerous coastal lairs and buried treasure. Grades 5-8. Some descriptions of violence. 2009.10,000 days of thunder: a history of the Vietnam War
By Philip Caputo. 2005
Overview of the Vietnam conflict by the Pulitzer Prize-winning former soldier. Presents background information on communism and United States' involvement…
in Vietnam. Discusses the war's chief participants and key battles and chronicles the changing political and social climate of 1960s and 1970s America. Some descriptions of violence. Grades 5-8 and older readers. 2005.The Sacco-Vanzetti trial (Be the judge/be the jury.)
By Doreen Rappaport. 1992
On April 15, 1920, two men shoot and kill a factory paymaster and his guard in South Braintree, Massachusetts. Two…
Italian immigrants, Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, are arrested and charged with murder. Using edited transcripts of the testimony given in the case, the author recreates the trial and invites the reader to serve as judge and jury. Grades 5-8 and older. 1992.My Story Starts Here: Voices of Young Offenders
By Deborah Ellis. 2019
Jamar found refuge in a gang after leaving an abusive home where his mother stole from him. Fred was arrested…
for assault with a weapon, public intoxication and attacking his mother while on drugs. Jeremy first went to court at age fourteen (“Court gives you the feeling that you can never make up for what you did, that you’re just bad forever”) but now wears a Native Rights hat to remind him of his strong Métis heritage. Kate, charged with petty theft and assault, finally found a counselor who treated her like a person for the first time.Many readers will recognize themselves, or someone they know, somewhere in these stories. Being lucky or unlucky after an incident of shoplifting, or the drug search at school, or hanging out with the wrong kids at the wrong time. The encounter with a mean cop, or a good one, that can change the trajectory of a kid’s life. Couch-surfing, or being shunted from one foster home to another. The effect of youth crime on families (the book includes the points of view of family members as well as “voices of experience” — adults looking back at their own experiences as young offenders).The kids in this book represent a range of socioeconomic backgrounds, genders, sexual orientations and ethnicities. Every story is different, but there are common threads — loss of parenting, dislocation, poverty, truancy, addiction, discrimination.Most of all, this book leaves readers asking the most pressing questions of all. Does it make sense to put kids in jail? Can’t we do better? Have we forgotten that we were once teens ourselves, feeling powerless to change our lives, confused about who we were and what we wanted, and quick to make a dumb move without a thought for the consequences?America in 1982: Japanese car companies are on the rise and believed to be putting U.S. autoworkers out of their…
jobs. Anti–Asian American sentiment simmers, especially in Detroit. A bar fight turns fatal, leaving a Chinese American man, Vincent Chin, beaten to death at the hands of two white men, autoworker Ronald Ebens and his stepson, Michael Nitz. Paula Yoo has crafted a searing examination of the killing and the trial and verdicts that followed. When Ebens and Nitz pled guilty to manslaughter and received only a $3,000 fine and three years' probation, the lenient sentence sparked outrage. The protests that followed led to a federal civil rights trial—the first involving a crime against an Asian American—and galvanized what came to be known as the Asian American movement. Extensively researched from court transcripts, contemporary news accounts, and in-person interviews with key participants, From a Whisper to a Rallying Cry is a suspenseful, nuanced, and authoritative portrait of a pivotal moment in civil rights history, and a man who became a symbol against hatred and racismI have the right to: a high school survivor's story of sexual assault, justice, and hope
By Chessy Prout, Jenn Abelson. 2018
Prout recounts her own experience of being sexually assaulted when she was a freshman at St. Paul's School, a prestigious…
New Hampshire boarding school. Discusses how the school's administration ignored the rape culture that flourished for decades. Some violence and some strong language. For senior high and older readers. 2018To look a Nazi in the eye: a teen's account of a war criminal trial
By Kathy Kacer, Jordana Lebowitz. 2017
Recounts the events that led Jordana Lebowitz, a young Canadian college student, to travel to Germany to attend the war…
criminal trial of Oskar Groening in 2015. Lebowitz was accompanied by three Holocaust survivors who planned to testify. For senior high and older readers. 2017Blacklisted!: Hollywood, the Cold War, and the First Amendment
By Larry Dane Brimner. 2018
Recounts the 1947 investigation into the motion picture industry by the US House of Representatives' Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC).…
Details the claim by individuals from the film industry that their First Amendment rights were violated, and relates their subsequent blacklisting. For junior and senior high and older readers. 2018Unpunished murder: massacre at Colfax and the quest for justice
By Lawrence Goldstone. 2018
Recounts the Easter Sunday 1873 slaughter of more than one hundred unarmed African Americans by white supremacists in Louisiana--none of…
whom was convicted. Follows the opinion issued by the Supreme Court allowing post-slavery discrimination that continues to this day. Some violence. For senior high and older readers. 2018Hate crimes
By Hal Marcovitz. 2018
Details crimes committed against people because of their race, ethnicity, disability, religion, gender, or gender identity--crimes that have become common…
in the US and other countries. Highlights the impact hate crimes have on the community and the challenges of bringing perpetrators to justice. For senior high and older readers. 201859 hours (Simon true: real stories. Real teens. Real consequences)
By Johnny Kovatch. 2018
Chronicles the fifty-nine hours from August 6, 2000, when fifteen-year-old Nicholas Markowitz was kidnapped, to his eventual murder after midnight…
on August 9th. Recounts the trial and life after for the family and criminals. Some violence and some strong language. For senior high and older readers. 2018The Acid King (Simon true)
By Jesse P. Pollack. 2018
True story of the murder of Long Island teen Gary Lauwers by Ricky Kasso in 1984, called a "Satanic sacrifice"…
by the international media. Recounts the case and America's War on Drugs campaign. Violence and strong language. For senior high and older readers. 2018Deep water (Simon true)
By Katherine Nichols. 2017
In 1971, seventeen-year-old Eddie Otero, a skilled waterman and avid surfer, agreed to swim an illicit package across the border…
from Mexico. The author recounts how this one-time thrill turned into a million-dollar drug-smuggling operation. Some violence and some strong language. For senior high and older readers. 2017Sexual assault: the ultimate teen guide (It Happened to Me Ser. #51)
By Olivia Ghafoerkhan. 2017
Defines sexual assault, from unwanted kissing and groping to rape. Uses personal accounts to highlight the various types of sexual…
assault, what you should do if you are a victim, and how to support survivors. Violence. For senior high and older readers. 2017No more excuses: dismantling rape culture
By Amber J. Keyser, Amber J Keyser. 2019
Explores the patriarchal constructs that support rape culture. The author suggests ways to dismantle them: redefine healthy manhood and sexuality,…
believe victims, improve social and legal systems, evaluate media with a critical eye, and stand up to speak out. Violence and strong language. For senior high and older readers. 2019