Helaine Becker

An inspiring story of Zheng Yi Sao, the real-life pirate queen who took control of her life — and the South China seas — in the early 19th century.

The most powerful pirate in history was a woman who was born into poverty in Guangzhou, China, in the late 1700s. 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

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Science fiction comes to life in this riveting showcase of zoobots - robots inspired by animals. Detailed reports on machines that look and behave like creepy, crawly creatures such as geckos, jellyfish and bats will encourage budding scientists to imagine the next zoobot.

When Darren Dirkowitz's evil stepbrother (code name Waldo) gets hold of Darren's tippity-top-secret spy journal, he threatens to expose it to the entire Preston Middle School student body. Unless, that is, Darren starts doing his dirty work for him. Now Darren's got to use the oh-so-cloak-and-daggery skills he's honed in his secret alternate life as Dirk Daring, Secret Agent to spy on kids at school. Naturally, he also sets up a separate, sneaky surveillance...

Darren Dirkowitz thought his life was over when his tippity-top-secret alter ego, Dirk Daring, Secret Agent, was outed to the entire Preston Middle School student body. If only he'd been so lucky. Now the Wolf Lords-a gang of teen thugs bent on wringing every last penny out of Preston students-are breathing down his neck. There's only one solution: Dirk Daring must embark on his most daring mission yet. A mission so audacious, so cunning, so doggone...

An engaging picture book biography of a groundbreaking female mathematician. Emmy Noether is not pretty, quiet or good at housework - all the things a girl of her time is expected to be. What she is, though, is brilliant at math. And when she grows up, she skirts the rules to first study math at a university and then teach it. She also helps to solve of the most pressing mathematical and physics problems of the day. And though she doesn't get much...

The future is now. Here come the hubots! Using increasingly sophisticated artificial intelligence (AI) and embodied intelligence (EI), a new generation of robots is being designed to look, act and even think just like humans! Hubots, or human-inspired robots, are expanding the boundaries of what robots can do. For example, they can fight fires on the high seas, set up colonies on other planets and provide humans with companionship. This book introduces...

Are monsters really out there in the big, wide world? Frankenstein, vampires, bigfoot, zombies, werewolves, sea monsters? They're not real, right? But what if they were? How would science explain their existence? In this totally original book, these mythical creatures are put under the microscope, one by one, and the scientific principles that prove or disprove their plausibility are explained. How does electricity work, and can it ever wake the dead?...

Helaine Becker's “An Equal Shot” is a nonfiction picture book introduction to the history and importance of Title IX as civil rights legislature, featuring illustrations by Dow Phumiruk. You've likely heard of the law Title IX. It protects the equal rights of students, athletes, and professionals in America regardless of gender. But do you know about the women who fought to enact this new law? Here is the rousing account of how Title IX was...

Born in Scotland over 250 years ago, William Playfair was a dreamer who "saw the world differently from other people." Unfortunately, this skill didn't easily translate into the fame and fortune he hoped for. In fact, it often got him into trouble with family, friends and bosses. But Will's innovative vision did inspire a big idea that would set him apart: he turned numbers into pictures by creating line graphs, bar graphs and pie charts! Numbers...