Helen Plum Library

"Explores the history and impact of the Bubonic plague."--

"With a mix of sidebars, illustrations, photos, and graphic panels, this book uncovers the hidden truths about history's pandemics, from the Black Death to COVID-19"--

"Imagine microscopic worms living in the soil. They enter your body through your bare feet, travel to your intestines, and stay there for years sucking your blood like vampires. You feel exhausted. You get sick easily. It sounds like a nightmare, but that's what happened in the American South during the 1800s and early 1900s. Doctors never guessed that hookworms were making patients ill, but zoologist Charles Stiles knew better. Working with one of...

"Modern medicine is such a marvel that it's hard to imagine how deadly it was to live in the past. Sometimes it was hard to stay alive, especially in the care of an ancient doctor. Readers will learn about deadly diseases such as the many plagues that killed off millions in the Middle Ages. They'll discover just how little people knew about the spread of illness and its prevention. Historical artwork supports the intriguing, gruesome details, and...

"Now adapted for young readers! The incredible true story of the young women exposed to the "wonder drug" radium and their struggle for justice"--

"A book for middle-school-aged children about previous extinctions and possible threats to humans, from volcanoes, to asteroids, to pollution and diseases"--

In spring of 1918, World War I was underway, and troops at Fort Riley, Kansas, found themselves felled by influenza. By the summer of 1918, the second wave struck as a highly contagious and lethal epidemic and within weeks exploded into a pandemic, an illness that travels rapidly from one continent to another. It would impact the course of the war, and kill many millions more soldiers than warfare itself. Of all diseases, the 1918 flu was by far the...

"In August 1587, a group of about 115 English settlers arrived on Roanoke Island near North Carolina. They were there to establish an English colony. Later that year, the colony's leader left the island to get supplies. His return trip was delayed. When he finally returned in 1590, the colony and its settlers were gone. What happened to the settlers? Explore the theories behind their disappearance and why it has become one of history's greatest mysteries."...

The professional basketball player and 2016 Olympic gold medalist shares her inspirational story of overcoming the challenges of competitive sports through balancing hard work and the support of family

"Indigenous people across Turtle Island have been faced with disease, war, broken promises, and forced assimilation. Despite crushing losses and insurmountable challenges, they formed new nations from the remnants of old ones, they adopted new ideas and built on them, they fought back, they kept their cultures alive, and they survived. Key events in Indigenous history with accounts of the people, places, and events that have mattered from the 12th...