CHILD'S BOOKSHELF: INSIDE CHILDREN'S LITERATURE
Friday, February 2 at 12:30 p.m.

A look at the work of children’s book authors of Jerry Pinkney, Denise Fleming, John Lithgow and Chris Raschka.

One Nation Under Law - examines the creation of the court and follows it through the brink of the Civil War. Learn about how the cases of Marbury v. Madison (1803) and Dred Scott v. Sandord (1857) challenged ideas of judicial review and the protection of slavery.

A New Kind of Justice - explores the issues before the court during the period after the Civil War, a time of unprecedented economic growth. As corporations became more powerful they found an unlikely ally in the Supreme Court. While the 14th Amendment was passed to make certain that the states were obligated to recognize the rights of the newly freed slaves, the court would for almost 100 years use the amendment to protect not blacks but big business, recognizing corporations as "persons" and awarding them sweeping legal protection.

NOVA presents the remarkable life story of Percy Julian -- not only one of the great African-American scientists of the 20th century, but an industrialist, self-made millionaire, humanitarian and civil rights pioneer. The grandson of Alabama slaves, Julian won worldwide acclaim for his research in chemistry and broke the color barrier in American science more than a decade before Jackie Robinson did so in baseball.

AT CLOSE RANGE WITH NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC

This award winning documentary finds National Geographic magazine photographer Joel Sartore shooting in some of the most exotic locales on earth, but often in wretched conditions for weeks on end. On the job, he's been chased by bears, wolves, alligators and musk oxen. Sartore pursues the perfect image -- photographs form the narrative for every National Geographic article.

SUPREME COURT: A NATION OF LIBERTIES/THE REHNQUIST REVOLUTION

A Nation of Liberties -This program highlights the Warren Court as it confronts the issues of race, gender and religion. "This is a watershed time in the court's history," says Joan Biskupic, journalist and author, in THE SUPREME COURT. "You have World War II. You have McCarthyism. You have the Cold War. You have the civil rights struggles. There's tension between national security, national identity, free speech, individual rights. And it falls into the lap of these nine justices to sort it all out.”

The Rehnquist Revolution - details the extraordinary opportunity exploited by President Richard Nixon: to name four of the court's nine judges, effectively wiping out almost half of the Warren court. Investigate how the court, especially under the leadership of Chief Justice William Rehnquist, rose in importance to become the institution most responsible for resolving the central questions of American life. The program also addresses the right to privacy, a key component in 1973's Roe v. Wade.

The Downward Spiral covers the period from 1619 through 1739 and spotlights the origins of slavery in America, focusing on Dutch New Amsterdam (later New York City). This installment shows how slavery in its early days was a loosely defined labor source similar to indentured servitude.But further south, the story of John Punch served as an omen of things to come. The first hour of this series culminates with the bloody Stono rebellion in South Carolina, which led to the passage of "black codes," regulating virtually every aspect of slaves' lives.

CYBERCHASE: ALL THE RIGHT ANGLES

To help Motherboard, the kids must find a secret treasure before Hacker does, and use their skill with angles to read the strange map that contains only riddles about twists and turns.  The Big Idea: To turn something so it points in just the right direction, use an angle to measure the size of the turn.  Math Topic: Angle Measurement.

SLAVERY AND THE MAKING OF AMERICA: LIBERTY IN THE AIR

Spanning the 1740s through the 1830s, Liberty in the Air explores the continued expansion of slavery in the colonies, the evolution of a distinct African-American culture and the roots of the emancipation movement. The episode reveals the many ways the enslaved resisted their oppression, their role on both sides of the Revolutionary War, and the strength and inspiration many of them found in the Declaration of Independence and Constitution, despite the inherent contradictions that lay in what the documents expressed and what the country practiced.

Some crocodile species have been known to exceed 20 feet. Hosted by world-renowned herpetologist Romulus Whitaker, the program attempts to discover the last of these leviathans.

Sunday, February 11 at 8 p.m.

Bram Stoker's infamously sinister, and famously undead, character comes to life in this new television adaptation by Stewart Harcourt ("Jericho").