She entered China's forbidden city as a low-ranking member of the emperor's household, a girl in a nation ruled by men. But she was sly, ruthless, and hungry for power. within a decade, as Empress Cixi, she controlled the most populous country on earth.

• Engaging biographies of famous and infamous figures in history
• Sophisticated design will attract high-school and middle-school struggling readers, yet on-target reading levels make these books accessible to readers of all levels
• Controlled vocabulary and sentence length make these books highly readable
• Directly correlated to Social Studies Standards for Middle and High School