Sparkling Stars #26

Meet Dorothy Kamenshek, the twenty-one-year-old first baseman for Rockford, Illinois, whose stellar play in the All-American Girls Baseball League has made her a standout talent. With a .316 batting average and league-leading defensive skills, plus an impressive 107 stolen bases, Kamenshek has proven she belongs among baseball's elite competitors.

June Allyson's journey from a poverty-stricken childhood in upstate New York to Hollywood stardom is traced in this biographical feature, showing how a near-fatal accident at age eight only strengthened her resolve to dance and perform. After a daring bet leads her to Broadway and eventually to an M.G.M. contract, Allyson rises through the ranks of stage and screen to become "America's Sweetheart." This two-page profile captures the remarkable transformation of a determined young performer who refused to let circumstance define her future.

Inspector Click Hunt tracks down the notorious gang leader Trigger Rock to a half-built skyscraper where sabotage and murder are afoot, but when Rock kidnaps his companion Arizona and corners Click high above the city streets, the detective must outmaneuver a desperate criminal with nothing left to lose. As Click closes in on his old nemesis, the case spirals toward a violent reckoning atop the skeleton structure that gives the case its name.

When a fire breaks out in his Harlem home on the night of January 5, 1947, thirteen-year-old Richard McKinsey must navigate smoke and flames to reach his family trapped inside. Awakened by his mother's screams, Richard races against time through the burning building, searching for his siblings and loved ones in the darkness and heat. This true story from Sparkling Stars #26 follows a young man's desperate fight to save those he loves during one of the most harrowing nights of his life.

At the University of Minnesota, 34 young volunteers endured six months of severe caloric restriction—consuming only 1,600 calories while expending 3,300 per day—to help scientists understand starvation's effects on the human body and mind. Alongside the starvation study, researchers conducted fatigue experiments using conscientious objectors who were kept awake for over 112 hours, revealing crucial differences in how the body handles mental versus physical exhaustion. The findings from both trials provided invaluable data that shaped medical treatment, industrial working conditions, and military planning in the post-war era.

When a London contractor's office burns to the ground with what appears to be a charred body at the desk, Detective Cornish of Scotland Yard is called to investigate—but a startling autopsy reveals the victim was shot in the back of the head, not killed by fire. As Cornish pieces together the evidence, he discovers a brutal swap: the dead man isn't the contractor at all, but a rent collector who visited the office. Now the hunt is on to track down Samuel Furnace before he can disappear.

Primo Carnera, a towering Italian boxer who rose from the streets near Naples to heavyweight champion, trades the ring for the wrestling mat in this profile of an athlete's remarkable reinvention. Starting his fighting career at just 15, Carnera bulldozed his way to the title before an unexpected turn sent him back to Italy—and after clearing his name, he's now making waves as a professional wrestler in America. This is the story of how one of sports' most imposing figures found new glory in a different arena.

Gallant Fox was no ordinary racecross—this intelligent racer possessed the smarts to pace himself strategically, conserving energy until a rival threatened to close in, and the character to prove it through his disciplined habits both on and off the track. In a single season, the Triple Crown champion earned over $300,000, a sum that would rival the annual earnings of many successful professionals, cementing his place among racing's immortal legends.