The author presents her story and life philosophy, describing how she wished for a magic pencil that she would use to fix the world's problems, and how she realized that even if she never found the pencil, she could still have a positive impact.

"From one of the most brilliant and influential lawyers of our time comes an unforgettable true story about the redeeming potential of mercy. Bryan Stevenson was a gifted young attorney when he founded the Equal Justice Initiative, a legal practice dedicated to defending the poor, the wrongly condemned, and those trapped in the furthest reaches of our criminal justice system. One of his first cases was that of Walter McMillian, a young man sentenced...

"1860: As the clash between the states rolls slowly to a boil, Elizabeth Packard, housewife and mother of six, is facing her own battle. The enemy sits across the table and sleeps in the next room. Threatened by Elizabeth's intellect, independence, and outspokenness, her husband of twenty-one years is plotting against her and makes a plan to put her back in her place. One summer morning, he has her committed to an insane asylum. The horrific conditions...

Malala Yousafzai was a girl who loved to learn but was told that girls would no longer be allowed to go to school. She wrote a blog that called attention to what was happening in her beautiful corner of Pakistan and realized that words can bring about change. She has continued to speak out for the right of all children to have an education. In 2014 she won the Nobel Peace Prize.

Sojourner Truth was born into slavery, but became a free woman. Freedom meant so much to Sojourner, she used the power of speech to help end slavery.

Describes the lives, work, and friendship of former slave and abolitionist Frederick Douglass, and suffragist and social reformer Susan B. Anthony.

The story of Emma Lazarus, who, despite her life of privilege, became a tireless advocate for the immigrants who arrived in New York City in the 1880s and wrote a famous poem for the Statue of Liberty.

When Tien Fu Wu, a young Chinese girl, is sold into slavery by her gambler father, she is rescued by the women of the Occidental Mission Home for Girls in San Francisco, where she befriends missionary Dolly Cameron.