Vehicle-obsessed boys and girls can ride along with Big Frank and the rest of the firefighting crew on one busy day as they race to the scene of an accident, teach schoolchildren about fire safety, and battle a raging brush fire. Detail-packed full-color illustrations will fascinate young readers.

“There has never been a better book about hip-hop…a record-biz portrait that jumps off the page.”—A.V. Club THE INSPIRATION FOR THE VH1 SERIES THE BREAKS The Big Payback takes readers from the first $15 made by a “rapping DJ” in 1970s New York to the multi-million-dollar sales of the Phat Farm and Roc-a-Wear clothing companies in 2004 and 2007. On this four-decade-long journey from the studios where the first rap records were made to the boardrooms where the big deals were inked, The Big Payback tallies the list of who lost and who won. Read the secret histories of the early long-shot successes of Sugar Hill Records and Grandmaster Flash, Run DMC's crossover breakthrough on MTV, the marketing of gangsta rap, and the rise of artist/ entrepreneurs like Jay-Z and Sean “Diddy” Combs. 300 industry giants like Def Jam founders Rick Rubin and Russell Simmons gave their stories to renowned hip-hop journalist Dan Charnas, who provides a compelling, never-before-seen, myth-debunking view into the victories, defeats, corporate clashes, and street battles along the 40-year road to hip-hop's dominance. INCLUDES PHOTOGRAPHS

Epstein takes readers on a funky ride through baseball and America in the swinging '70s in this wild pop-culture history of baseball's most colorful and controversial decade. Includes 8-page photo insert.

Born in 1873, Daniel Goode Cunningham started working for the railroad at age 18 as a machinist apprentice and became general foreman on the Norfolk and Western Railroad; general foreman for the Santa Fe at Needles; Superintendent of Shops for the Denver & Rio Grande Western at Salt Lake City; Superintendent of Motive power for the Denver & Salt Lake; and master mechanic of the Salt Lake Division of the Rio Grande. He was a community leader in modernizing the Salt Lake City Fire department. When he retired from active service on the railroad in 1941, he was honored by the railroad, the families of the employees, Salt Lake City, and the State of Utah. This book, by acclaimed author Frank Cunningham, is the biography of “Big Dan” Cunningham and a history of the railroad in Denver and Salt Lake City.

Mister Fick, everybody addresses him that way and Sofie wondered what his Christian name was. He was a tall man and skinny, and as he got older his back began to bend so that when you looked at him side on, as Annie once put it while they were in church, he looked like a crochet hook. The high-bridged nose and the lantern jaw gave him that look. His wife, on the other hand, was short - even shorter that Sofie - and ten times as plump. A little ball and always quiet.

Described as "the Greatest Batsman in the Country" by sportswriters of his era, Dennis "Big Dan" Brouthers compiled a .342 batting average, tying with Babe Ruth for ninth place all-time, and slugged 205 triples, eighth all time, in 16 major league seasons. He won five batting and on-base percentage titles, and seven slugging titles, and was the first player to win batting and slugging crowns in successive years. Although he ranked fourth among nineteenth-century home run hitters, many fair balls he hit into the stands or over the fence were counted only as doubles or triples due to local ground rules. Brouthers was extremely difficult to strike out--in 1889, for example, he did so just six times in 565 plate appearances. He was the first player to be walked intentionally on a regular basis. This comprehensive biography of Dan Brouthers examines his life and career from his youth as an apprentice in a print and dye factory to his final years as an attendant at the Polo Grounds. It corrects numerous errors that have crept into earlier accounts of his life, and clarifies his position as one of the greatest hitters ever to play the game.

We all love big ideas. Here's a bold, fun book to stir your creative juices. Think of it as a creative gift for your creative gift. Your ideas, large and small, are among the greatest gifts you can give to yousrlf and others. Get ready, a single idea can change everything!