During the summer of 1971 in a small Texas town, thirteen-year-old Toby and his best friend Cal meet the star of a sideshow act, 600-pound Zachary, the fattest boy in the world.

The year is 1922. The carnival is Pontilliars Spectacular Star Light Miraculum, staked out on the Texas-Louisiana border. One blazing summer night, a mysterious stranger steps onto the midway, lights a cigarette and forever changes the world around him. Tattooed snake charmer Ruby has traveled with her fathers carnival for most of her life and, jaded though she is, cant help but be drawn to the tall man in the immaculate black suit who conveniently...

"Jack and Annie travel in the magic tree house to Galveston, Texas on September 8, 1900--the day of the worst natural disaster in US history"--

This semi-autobiographical tale is set in 1968 Texas, against the backdrop of the fight for civil rights. A white family from a notoriously racist neighborhood in the suburbs and a black family from its poorest ward cross Houston's color line, overcoming humiliation, degradation, and violence to win the freedom of five black college students unjustly charged with the murder of a policeman.

When resentment surges during the Great Depression in a Texas border town, Estrella, fifteen, organizes a protest against the treatment of tejanos and soon finds herself with her mother and baby brother in Mexico.

Provides an overview of fundamental nutrition concepts and the science underlying them.