2006-2021 Kansas Notable

"Every day, in natural history museums all across the country, colonies of dermestid beetles diligently devour the decaying flesh off of animal skeletons that are destined for the museum's specimen collection. That time-saving process was developed and perfected at the University of Kansas Natural History Museum by Charles D. Bunker, a lowly assistant taxidermist who would rise to become the curator of recent vertebrates and who made an indelible...

When Nobbin Swill, a royal dung farmer, ventures to the castle, he is drawn into hapless Prince Charming's quest to solve the case of the woodcutter's missing children, Hansel and Gretel.

Edna and Carl met when the airbase came to town. Edna worked for the local photo studio and Carl trained pilots to fly B52 Bombers. When World War II ended, the young couple headed to Carl's hometown of Marysville. Through trial and effort, they started a flying school and an airport. Edna's story covers a time when the United States was becoming the largest aviation manufacturing country in the world. A delight for aviation history buffs,

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"What happens when one frustrated dad turns his kids' lives upside down in search of a new way to be a family? Dan Kois and his wife always did their best for their kids. Busy professionals living in the D.C. suburbs, they scheduled their children's time wisely, and when they weren't arguing over screen time, the Kois family--Dan, his wife Alia, and their two pre-teen daughters--could each be found searching for their own happiness. But aren't families...

1850. Mellicent "Mellie" Blanchard takes a job at a mill in Manchester, New Hampshire, to help support her family. In search of additional earning opportunities, she approaches a daguerreotype shop owner with the proposal that he hire her to make paper cuttings or silhouette portraits for those who can't afford an expensive daguerreotype. When a particularly charming customer asks to escort her home, the seeds of romance begin to blossom. All the...

From the award-winning author of 10:04 and Leaving the Atocha Station, a tender and expansive family drama set in the American Midwest at the turn of the century: a tale of adolescence, transgression, and the conditions that have given rise to the trolls and tyrants of the New Right. Adam Gordon is a senior at Topeka High School, class of '97. His mother, Jane, is a famous feminist author; his father, Jonathan, is an expert at getting "lost boys"...

Imagine a United States in which registries and detainment camps for Muslim Americans are a reality. This is the world of fifteen-year-old Sarah-Mary Williams of Hannibal, Missouri. Sarah-Mary, who has strong opinions on almost everything, isn't concerned with the internments, as she doesn't know any Muslims. She assumes that everything she reads and sees in the news is true, and that these plans are better for everyone's safety. Then she meets Sadaf,...

"In 1854, after recently arriving from England, twenty-two-year-old Reuben Smith traveled west, eventually making his way to Kansas Territory. There he found himself in the midst of a bloody prelude to the Civil War, as Free Staters and defenders of slavery battled to stake their claim. The young Englishman wrote down what he witnessed in a diary where he had already begun documenting his days in a clear and candid fashion. As beautifully written...

"The upper Arkansas River courses through the heart of America from its headwaters near the Continental Divide above Leadville, Colorado, to Arkansas City, just above the Kansas-Oklahoma border. Max McCoy embarked on a trip of 742 miles in search of the river's unique story. Part adventure and part reflection, steeped in the natural and cultural history of the Arkansas Valley, Elevations is McCoy's account of that journey. Going by kayak when he can--by...