Most Popular Books by Marilyn Nelson

Abba Jacob, a hermit monk, shares with a group of children about how he learned to meditate from a baobab tree which was his boyhood''s "best silence teacher." Observing the baobab and the creatures who lived in its trunk and branches taught him about beauty, friendship, generosity, vulnerability, compassion, and the community of living things: lessons he tells us we can learn ourselves by going inward in meditation. Listening to silence may help us to see the connection between the natural world and faith.

For the barn lover, this book is a feast for the eyes! Contained in these pages is a collection of the incredible diversity of barns found in the Erie County area of Pennsylvania. Many of the barns you see in these pages have fallen victim to the wind and weather found off the shores of Lake Erie and no longer exist. Owning a record of them in such a beautiful format is a valuable asset to any collection of images of American rural landscape. Combined with artistic composition and the process of high-dynamic range photography, it makes for a must-have coffee table book that any barn lover would be proud to own.

Before World War II, leaders of the Army Air Corps (predecessor to the modern-day Air Force) barred African Americans from serving in uniform. Facing mounting public pressure in the years before the war, the U.S. government ordered the removal of some restrictions against Black aviators, first by opening civilian training programs in 1939, and then by accepting Black pilots into racially segregated units of the Army Air Corps in 1941. A new air base at Tuskegee, Alabama, became the center for the training program of Black air personnel. First with the 99th Fighter Squadron and later with the 332nd Fighter Group, African Americans contributed to the war effort, serving in the Mediterranean combat theater, flying from bases in North Africa and Italy while supporting operations against German forces. Later, the USAAF created the 477th Bombardment Group of African American B-25 Mitchell crews, which did not see combat. These were the Tuskegee Airmen.

Born the prince of Dukandarra, Guinea, Broteer Furro was captured by slave traders at age six. As Broteer stepped off of the African continent and onto a Rhode-Island-bound cargo ship, the vessel''s steward purchased the boy and gave him a new name: Venture. The young man crossed the Atlantic, landed in Narraganset, and worked through a lifetime of slavery to buy not only his own freedom, but the freedoms of his wife and children.