New Releases by Heather Lang

As this year's Olympics draw near in Rio de Janeiro, athletes from around the world are training hard to overcome the competition, just as Alice Coachman did for the 1948 Olympics in London. This inspirational nonfiction book by Heather Lang is a story of perseverance and unwavering ambition that follows Coachman on her journey from rural Georgia, where she overcame adversity both as a woman and as a black athlete, to her triumph in Wembly Stadium. With her strong determination and innate athletic talent, Alice raced her way to the top of the track and field world and, leaping over all hurdles in her path, went on to become the first African American woman to take home the gold medal. This amazing journey is complemented by Floyd Cooper's pastel illustrations that serve to represent Coachman's incredible struggles.

School Library Journal says: ?Lang brings her subject's early years to life through small details… Cooper's pastels keep to a brown, grainy palette, recalling the Georgia dirt on which the track star ran as a child.”

On November 19, 1916, at 8:25 a.m., Ruth Law took off on a flight that aviation experts thought was doomed. She set off to fly nonstop from Chicago to New York City. Sitting at the controls of her small bi-plane, exposed to the elements, Law battled fierce winds and numbing cold. When her engine ran out of fuel, she glided for two miles and landed at Hornell, New York. Even though she fell short of her goal, she had broken the existing cross-country distance record. And with her plane refueled, she got back in the air and headed for New York City where crowds waited to greet her. In this well-researched, action-packed picture book, Heather Lang and Raúl Colón recreate a thrilling moment in aviation history. Includes an afterword with archival photographs.