Performing Arts

Read about the incredible life of Walt Disney in this addition to the #1 New York Times best-selling Who Was? series. Walt Disney always loved to entertain people. Often it got him into trouble. Once he painted pictures with tar on the side of his family's white house. His family was poor, and...

Born in a little cabin in Tennessee, Dolly Parton always dreamed big, and she was right to! She wrote her first song at age five and became a country music star by the time she was in her early twenties. Of course, her success didn't stop there. Dolly Parton is also an actress, author...

Who doesn't love Lucy? The legendary actress, producer, and comedian steps into the Who Was? spotlight. Much like her hit TV show, I Love Lucy, Americans in the 1950s fell in love with Lucy. Born in New York in 1911, Lucille Ball was always a natural performer. She danced in the chorus of...

Jim Henson broke into television with a five-minute puppetry segment when he was only a freshman in college. He created puppets like none ever seen before, with expressive fabric faces and rod-controlled arms. His Muppets became world-renowned celebrities and formed the backbone of a media...

Adored for his music, dancing, and performing - and known for his highly publicized personal life - Michael Jackson remains the ultimate music legend....

Born in 1925, Maria Tallchief spent part of her childhood on an Osage reservation in Oklahoma. With the support of her family and world-renowned choreographer George Balanchine, she rose to the top of her art form to become America's first prima ballerina. Black-and-white illustrations provide...

How did a teenage actress become a Grammy-winning pop star? Find out in this Who HQ Now biography about Ariana Grande and her exciting career that spans the Broadway stage, television, and music to blockbuster movies! Ever since she was a child, Ariana Grande has been performing. When she was...

Discover the true story of P. T. Barnum, the man who created the world-famous Barnum & Bailey Circus, as featured in the movie The Greatest Showman! The award-winning author of The Lincolns: A Scrapbook Look at Abraham and Mary, Amelia Lost, and Our Eleanor brings us the larger-than-life...

Every kid has heard of Harry Houdini, the famous magician who could escape from handcuffs, jail cells, and locked trunks. But do they know that the ever-ambitious and adventurous Houdini was also a famous movie star and the first pilot to fly a plane in Australia? This well-told biography is...

We can all be heroes. That’s the inspiring message of this New York Times bestselling biography series from historian and author Brad Meltzer. This volume focuses on Jim Henson, the creator of the Muppets and Sesame Street. This friendly, fun biography series focuses on the traits that...

If you found The Amazing Book is Not on Fire at least mildly interesting, or even if you didn't read it at all, then you will LOVE our audiobook! Not only do you get us sensually narrating the whole thing in your ears, but there are over three hours of exclusive behind-the-scenes commentary on...

Put on your blue suede shoes and get ready for another addition to the Who Was…? series! The King could not have come from humbler origins: Born in Tupelo, Mississippi, during the Depression, he grew up with the blues music of the rural South, the gospel music of local churches, and the...

Bruce Lee was a Chinese American action film star, martial arts instructor, filmmaker, and philosopher. His Hong Kong and Hollywood-produced films elevated the traditional martial arts film to a new level of popularity and acclaim. Through such films as Way of the Dragon and Enter the...

Was Johnny Cash always the rebellious "Man in Black" that we remember him as today? Find out in this biography from the #1 New York Times bestselling series that takes us from Cash's childhood on an Arkansas cotton farm to his first days in rockabilly through his most famous years as a country...

You may know that Bruno Mars is an unbelievably talented pop singer and producer....

Beloved children's television host Fred Rogers is the 31st hero in the New York Times bestselling picture book biography series for ages 5 to 9. As a shy, young boy, Fred Rogers found comfort in telling stories through puppets. When television grew in popularity, he knew he wanted to create a...

Known as one of the most influential filmmakers of all time, Alfred Hitchcock’s unique vision in movies like Psycho and The Birds sent shivers down our spines and shockwaves through the film industry. His innovative camera techniques have been studied for decades and his gift for storytelling...

XO Ballerina Big Sis shares Tiler Peck’s insider insights and hard-won knowledge about everything you want to know, including how to properly prepare for class, handle new roles, prep your toe shoes, control stage fright, deal with injuries, manage competition, and stay positive and...

The 18th book in the New York Times bestselling series of biographies about heroes tells the story of Walt Disney, who made dreams come true. This friendly, fun biography series focuses on the traits that made our heroes great--the traits that kids can aspire to in order to live heroically...

As a child his passions were comics and cars, but George Lucas grew up to be one of the most successful filmmakers of all time. He is a producer, screenwriter, director and entrepreneur whose company Lucasfilms pioneered the movie effects that changed the world of animation. He founded...

When Aretha Franklin sang, she didn’t just sing...she sparked a movement. As a performer and a civil rights activist, the Queen of Soul used her voice to uplift freedom fighters and the Black community during the height of the 1960s Civil Rights Movement....

Learn how Fred Rogers, a minister and musician from Pennsylvania, became one of America's most beloved television personalities and everyone's favorite neighbor. Even though he's best known for his successful PBS series Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, Fred Rogers never dreamed of working in...

From a bestselling and award-winning team comes a moving biography of one of the greatest cellists of all time, Yo-Yo Ma, and his lifelong passion for using music to unite people in harmony and joy “I’ve been asking myself all my life, ‘What is the purpose of music?’”–Yo-Yo Ma 4...

"We can all be heroes" is the message of this biography series from #1 New York Times Bestselling author Brad Meltzer. “Kids always search for heroes, so we might as well have a say in it,” Brad Meltzer realized, and so he envisioned this friendly, fun approach to biography—for his own...

With two six guns blazin', Annie Oakley was the star of Buffalo Bill Cody's famous Wild West show for almost 20 years....