Jim Murphy

On March 12, 1888, hurricane-force winds and unrelenting snow began to bring the region of Virginia to Maine to its knees. During the next three days, the Great Blizzard raged out of control, devastating every community in its path. Through the eyes and words of survivors and victims alike, as well as the careful research for which Newbery Honor Award author Jim Murphy is known, listeners will experience one of the most devastating natural disasters...

This collection represents an engagement with American history, technology, and cultures. Murphy's poetry ranges from fairly straightforward narrations of events to experimental pieces using a variety of American-speaking subjects and several angles of vision on cultural creations-Elvis Presley, Holly Golightly, and Elmore James, to name just a few. Formal choices include the interlocking movements of the sestina and the rondau, the ebb and flow of...

Two-time Newbery Honor Book author Jim Murphy writes a stunning nonfiction masterpiece about a Christmas miracle on the Western Front during World War I. On July 29th 1914, the world's peace was shattered as the artillery of the Austria-Hungary Empire began shelling the troops of the country to its south. What followed was like a row of falling dominoes as one European country after another rushed into war. Soon most of Europe was fighting in this...

The ocean is one of the last remaining wildernesses on our planet. It is also a wilderness where anyone can go. In this wilderness, we find animals that did not evolve along with humankind, and therefore allow a kind of proximity that terrestrial animals have instinctively learned to avoid. This book is about how my love for this wilderness awakened on my very first saltwater dive, and how it continues to grow with every dive I make. This book is...

A two-time Newbery Honor Book author, Jim Murphy is among the world's finest writers of nonfiction for children. In A Savage Thunder he takes listeners back to the American Civil War to tell the terrible yet extraordinary story of the Battle of Antietam. With the entire world watching, two armies met in Maryland in 1862. The Union needed a victory. The Confederacy hoped to continue its success. When the smoke cleared, 23,000 men were dead or wounded-and...

The Great Fire of 1871 was one of most colossal disasters in American history. Overnight, the flourshing city of Chicago was transformed into a smoldering wasteland. The damage was so profound that few people believed the city could ever rise again.By weaving personal accounts of actual survivors together with the carefully researched history of Chicago and the disaster, Jim Murphy constructs a riveting narrative that recreates the event with drama...

Jimmy Murphy starts sixth grade determined to be a better student and impress the beautiful Kathy Gathers, but Sister Angelica has him and his friends pegged as troublemakers and they may just prove her right.

Describes the events of the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863 as seen through the eyes of two actual participants, nineteen-year-old Confederate lieutenant John Dooley and seventeen-year-old Union soldier Thomas Galway. Also discusses Lincoln's famous speech delivered at the dedication of the National Cemetery at Gettysburg.

Includes diary entries, personal letters, and archival photographs to describe the experiences of boys, sixteen years old or younger, who fought in the Civil War.

"The story of the landmark 1944 surgical procedure that repaired the heart of a child with blue baby syndrome--lack of blood oxygen caused by a congenital defect. The team that developed the procedure included a cardiologist and a surgeon, but most of the actual work was done by Vivien Thomas, an African American lab assistant who was frequently mistaken for a janitor"--