Sparkling Stars #28

Saxie wins a raffle prize—a stack of movie passes—but discovers the winning ticket is tucked in a checked jacket his mother just gave away to a wandering tramp. Now Saxie and his pals must track down the drifter across town before the deadline, leading to a wild chase involving music, dancing, and a moving freight train. With the ticket finally in hand, Saxie rushes to claim his prize, only to find the Dean's rules about associating with vagrants come back to haunt him and his friends.

When trigger-happy gang members attempt a daring rescue at Union Station, a notorious criminal's two-decade reign of terror—spanning train robberies, bank jobs, and prison breaks—hurtles toward its violent climax. This hard-hitting crime story traces Frank Nash's rise from the Oklahoma badlands through a string of increasingly desperate heists, each one bringing him closer to the G-Men closing in. Based on true events, it's a brutal reminder that the law's net, once cast, inevitably tightens.

Jackie Robinson holds the distinction of being the first Negro baseball player to sign a major league contract, and this profile traces his remarkable rise from his college days at UCLA—where he excelled in football, baseball, and track—through his service as a lieutenant and his signing with the Brooklyn organization in 1947. After starring for the Kansas City Monarchs and leading the International League in batting during his 1946 season with Montreal, Robinson's groundbreaking path to the majors represents a turning point in professional baseball history.

A groundbreaking electronic microscope capable of magnifying objects 100,000 times over—from bacteria to industrial materials—opens up a hidden world invisible to the naked eye, revealing everything from parasitic viruses to the intricate structure of human teeth. This non-fiction account traces the invention's journey from the optical microscope pioneers of the 17th century through the development of electron optics, culminating in RCA's 1940 introduction of the first practical electron microscope. Discover how this remarkable instrument revolutionized medicine, dentistry, manufacturing, and scientific research in the postwar world.

On a tempestuous December morning in 1838, Grace Darling, the lighthouse keeper's daughter, witnesses a ship battered and sinking in the violent seas near Longstone Lighthouse. When nine survivors cling desperately to the wreckage, Grace refuses to stand idle—she demands to launch the lighthouse boat into the raging storm to attempt a rescue, with her father ultimately joining her in the perilous effort.

When a young woman discovers a burglar in her home, she turns to two quick-thinking neighbors for help—and together, Emory Kudlicker and Charles Mareno devise a clever plan to flush out the intruder and bring him to justice. This true story celebrates the resourcefulness and courage of three teenagers who refused to back down in the face of danger.