What a Life! Stories of Amazing People 2 (High-Beginning) (What a Life!)

Did you know that:

• Jean Paul Getty put pay phones in his guests' bedrooms to save money on phone bills?
• Leonardo da Vinci wrote backwards in his notebooks so that nobody could read them?
• Pele´s first soccer ball was a grapefruit?
• Pablo Picasso never threw anything away, not even empty cereal boxes?
• Agatha Christie wrote a book that actually saved someone's life?

These and other fascinating facts make up the biographies in What A Life!

This three-book series takes a fresh approach to making reading both pleasurable and motivating! High-interest biographies focus on less-known facts about famous figures, rather than the chronology of events typical of most biographies.

Each book in the What A Life! Series takes a multicultural approach, featuring 24 short biographies on inspirational figures from all over the world.

Subjects range from historical and political figures to athletes, artists, entertainers, and humanitarians, including:

• Marie Curie
• I.M. Pei 
• Eva Perón 
• Agatha Christie 
• Muhammad Ali 
• Bruce Lee 
• Leonardo da Vinci
• William Shakespeare
• Cesar Chavez
• Pablo Picasso
• Maria Montessori
• Mother Teresa

In addition to the biographical reading, each short, easy-tofollow unit includes:

• Pre-reading questions and activities.
• Vocabulary exercises — definition and usage.
• Main-idea and reading-skills exercises.
• Questions on detail and inference.
• Discussion, comprehension, and writing activities.
• Answers to exercises at the end of each book.

1. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Composer.

2. Dr. James Barry, Doctor.

3. Charles Dickens, Writer.

4. Alfred Nobel, Inventor and Philanthropist.

5. Sofia Kovalevsky, Mathematician.

6. Vincent van Gogh, Artist.

7. Maggie Walker, Bank Executive.

8. Helena Rubinstein, Entrepreneur.

9. Julia Morgan, Architect.

10. Princess Ka`iulani, Royalty.

11. Isdora Duncan, Dancer.

12. Diego Rivera, Artist.

13. Jim Thorpe, Athlete.

14. Agatha Christie, Writer.

15. Louis Armstrong, Musician.

16. Umm Kulthum, Singer.

17. Howard Hughes, Entrepreneur.

18. Soichiro Honda, Entrepreneur.

19. Mother Teresa, Humanitarian.

20. Sonja Henie, Ice Skater.

21. I.M. Pei, Architect.

22. Eva Perón, Political Leader.

23. Stephen Hawking, Physicist.

24. Arthur Ashe, Tennis Player.

Answer Key.

Bibliography.