"Elizabeth Cotten was only a little girl when she picked up a guitar for the first time. It wasn't hers (it was her big brother's), and it wasn't strung right for her (she was left-handed). But she flipped that guitar upside down and backwards and taught herself how to play it anyway. By age eleven, she'd written "Freight Train," one of the most famous folk songs of the twentieth century. And by the end of her life, people everywhere from the sunny...

"Venus and Serena Williams. Two peas in a pod. Best friends. Sisters ... [This is] the inspirational story of two tennis legends who were fierce competitors on the courts, but close sisters above all"--Amazon.com.

Introduces the first known female firefighter, Molly Williams, an African American cook for New York City's Fire Company 11, who one winter day in 1818 with many volunteers sick with influenza jumped into action to stop a house fire.

"Georgia Gilmore was a cook at the National Lunch Company in Montgomery, Alabama. When the bus boycotts broke out in Montgomery after Rosa Parks was arrested, Georgia knew just what to do: she organized a group of women who cooked and baked to fund-raise for gas and cars to help sustain the boycott. Called the Club from Nowhere, Georgia was the only person who knew who baked and bought the food, and she said the money came from 'nowhere' to anyone...

Recounts Rosa Parks' daring effort to stand up for herself and other African Americans by helping to end segregation on public transportation.

The book follows Maya Angelou, from her early traumatic childhood to her time as a singer, actress, civil rights campaigner and, eventually, one of America's most beloved writers.