Katie Kennedy Books

Building on the success of Did You Hear What Happened in Salem?, acclaimed historian Katie Kennedy presents the larger-than-life historical figures, daring escapes, heartless betrayals, and noble sacrifices that led to the infamous Battle of the Alamo and the birth of the state of Texas.

In the 1820s, when Texas was still a part of Mexico, settlers from the United States began to pour in. They brought covered wagons, chickens, and cannons. They brought enslaved people. And they brought grand ideas about what they should get to do in their new land, which were basically: whatever they wanted.

The Mexican government wasn’t so sure about that. But as more and more settlers moved in, the big personalities, rash decisions, and grand proclamations piled up. When these new “Texians” decided to declare independence, fighters like William Travis, Jim Bowie, and David Crockett came forward to resist the proud General Antonio López de Santa Anna and his army. They would face off at an old church in San Antonio, known as the Alamo.

And I saw it all.

With a funny and surprising first-person narrator, Did You Hear What Happened at the Alamo? offers a brutally honest―and wildly entertaining―new account of the creation of Texas and the stories we tell about our history.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” 

So begins the Declaration of Independence, the fabled 1776 document in which a group of men in a distant colony of the British Empire declared their freedom from that Empire -- and thus changed the world. But WERE “all men created equal”? What are “unalienable rights”? And how did these men come to write this document anyway?

In the style of Katie Kennedy’s acclaimed THE CONSTITUTION DECODED and THE PRESIDENTS DECODED, this fascinating book goes through the Declaration sentence by sentence and idea by idea. Readers will gain a deep understanding of not only the basic meaning of the Founders’ now-arcane language, but the historical background against which the Declaration was written, the situations that animated it (especially its 27 distinctly modern “grievances” against King George III), and the powerful arguments it makes about government, rights, responsibilities, and freedoms—arguments that we’re still having 250 years later. (They'll also discover fun facts:  That "unalienable" was probably a typo!) An essential guide for any student or teacher of civics and American history, or any patriotic American, THE DECLARATION DECODED brings this powerful text to life for a new generation. 

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Massachusetts Bay Colony, 1692. When the first girl fell down screaming, the people of Salem Village thought it might just be silliness. Then a second girl started barking. A third and fourth began to shake uncontrollably. A doctor said “an evil hand” had come upon the girls, and everyone knew: They were bewitched.

But who were the witches? Everyone knew that too: the unprotected residents of Salem—the poor, the elderly, the ones who were a little bit strange. Soon more girls were having fits and naming people as witches. The village erupted in accusations, suspicion, and fear. By the time the witch trials ended, dozens of lives had been ruined, and twenty people were dead.

And I saw it all.

With a snarky and surprising first-person narrator – a historical figure that played a major role in events – acclaimed writer Katie Kennedy offers a fresh new take on the greatest true-crime story in American history.

 Ever wonder why the president has a Cabinet? Why there’s such  thing as trial by jury? Why someday you’ll have to pay income tax, or  why there are no Dukes, Duchesses, Counts, or Countesses in the United  States? Because the Constitution says so––and so much more. And now, in The Constitution Decoded,  the ideas, concepts, and rules that make America are unpacked and  explained in detail to help all of us, kids and parents too, become more  informed citizens.
 

Written with impeccable clarity and  illustrated in a style that brings America’s early days to life, this  fascinating guide goes through the Constitution literally word by word,  sentence by sentence, and idea by idea to give readers a true  understanding of not only how the Framers envisioned the United States,  but also why they made the choices they did. Here’s why, for example,  the United States has three branches of government—legislative,  executive, and judicial. It explains how bills become laws, why we have  the right to free speech, how we can change the Constitution as our  country evolves, and so much more.

Packed with historical  context and figures, vocabulary, anecdotes, and trivia, this book is an  accessible yet richly layered work that belongs in every family library. 

An asteroid is hurtling toward Earth. A big, bad one. Maybe not  kill-all-the-dinosaurs bad, but at least  kill-everyone-in-California-and-wipe-out-Japan-with-a-tsunami bad. Yuri,  a physicist prodigy from Russia, has been recruited to aid NASA as they  calculate a plan to avoid disaster.

The good news is Yuri knows  how to stop the asteroid--his research in antimatter will probably win  him a Nobel prize if there's ever another Nobel prize awarded. But the  trouble is, even though NASA asked for his help, no one there will  listen to him. He's seventeen, and they've been studying physics longer  than he's been alive. 

Then he meets (pretty, wild, unpredictable)  Dovie, who lives like a normal teenager, oblivious to the impending  doom. Being with her, on the adventures she plans when he's not at NASA,  Yuri catches a glimpse of what it means to save the world and live a  life worth saving. 

Prepare to laugh, cry, cringe, and have your mind burst open with the questions of the universe.

 Rosa and Eddie are among hundreds of teens applying to NASA's  mysterious Interworlds Agency. They're not exactly sure what the  top-secret program entails, but they know they want in. Rosa has her  brilliant parents' legacies to live up to, and Eddie has nowhere else to  go--he's certainly not going to stick around and wait for his violent  father to get out of jail. Even if they are selected, they have no idea  what lies in store. But first they have to make it through round after  round of crazy-competitive testing.

And then something happens that even NASA's scientists couldn't predict . . .

From the author of the acclaimed Learning to Swear in America comes another high-stakes adventure that's absolutely out of this world.