Book picks similar to
The Secret Hide-Out by John Lawrence Peterson
fiction
childhood
kid-s-books
children-fantasy
Family Shoes
Noel Streatfeild - 1954
The children of Reverend Bell - Paul, Jane, Angus, and Ginny - find their plans for a summer holiday threatened as they search for ways to earn money to help their parents.
The Ballad of Lucy Whipple
Karen Cushman - 1996
I call myself Lucy now. I cannot hate California and be California. I know you will understand.California doesn't suit Lucy Whipple -- not the name, not the place. But moving out West to Lucky Diggins, California, was her mama's dream-come-true. And now her brother, Butte, and sisters, Prairie and Sierra, seem to be Westerners at heart, too. For Lucy, Lucky Diggins is hardly a town at all -- just a bunch of ramshackle tents and tobacco-spitting miners. Even the gold her mama claimed was just lying around in the fields isn't panning out. Worst of all, there's no lending library! Dag diggety!So Lucy vows to be plain miserable until she can hightail it back East where she belongs. But Lucy California Morning Whipple may be in for a surprise -- because home is a lot closer than she thinks... When California Morning Whipple's widowed mother uproots her family from their comfortable Massachusetts environs and moves them to a rough mining camp called Lucky Diggins in the Sierras, California Morning resents the upheaval. Desperately wanting to control something in her own life, she decides to be called Lucy, and as Lucy she grows and changes in her strange and challenging new environment. Here Karen Cushman helps the American Gold Rush spring to colorful life, just as she did for medieval England in her previous two books, Catherine, Called Birdy and The Midwife's Apprentice, which won Newbery Honor status and a Newbery Medal respectively.
The Family Under the Bridge
Natalie Savage Carlson - 1958
Children, he said, were like starlings, and one was better off without them.But the children who lived under the bridge recognized a true friend when they met one, even if the friend seemed a trifle unwilling at the start. And it did not take Armand very long to realize that he had gotten himself ready-made family; one that he loved with all his heart, and one for whom he would have to find a better home than the bridge.Armand and the children's adventures around Paris -- complete with gypsies and a Santa Claus -- make a story which children will treasure.
When Will This Cruel War Be Over?: The Civil War Diary of Emma Simpson, Gordonsville, Virginia, 1864
Barry Denenberg - 1996
A Confederate girl records the hardships of Southern life as the Civil War rages at her doorstep and tears her family and her country apart.
Frosty the Snow Man
Annie North Bedford - 1950
Who can resist the tale of children enjoying the fun of building Frosty, when suddenly to their astonishment, he comes alive! The children in the neighborhood have never had a better winter of sledding, ice skating, and building snow houses, until one day, a warm wind blows. What will happen to Frosty? 8 1/2" X 11 3/4".
Snow Treasure
Marie McSwigan - 1942
Nobody thought the Nazis could be defeated--until Uncle Victor told Peter how the children could fool the enemy. It was a dangerous plan. They had to slip past Nazi guards with nine million dollars in gold hidden on their sleds. It meant risking their country's treasure--and their lives. This classic story of how a group of children outwitted the Nazis and sent the treasure to America has captivated generations of readers. About the Author: The late Marie McSwigan wrote many novels for young readers, including All Aboard for Freedom. Originally published in 1942.
The Great Railroad Race: the Diary of Libby West
Kristiana Gregory - 1999
As the daughter of a newspaper reporter, fourteen-year-old Libby keeps a diary account of the exciting events surrounding her during the building of the Transcontinental Railroad in the West in 1868.
The Hundred Dresses
Eleanor Estes - 1944
Wanda Petronski is ridiculed by her classmates for wearing the same faded blue dress every day. She claims she has one hundred dresses at home, but everyone knows she doesn’t. When Wanda is pulled out of school one day, the class feels terrible, and classmate Maddie decides that she is "never going to stand by and say nothing again." A gentle tale about bullies, bystanders, and having the courage to speak up.
Clifford the Big Red Dog
Norman Bridwell - 1963
Emily Elizabeth describes the activities she enjoys with her very big red dog and how they take care of each other.
The Homework Machine
Dan Gutman - 2006
Because the machine, code named Belch, is doing their homework for them, they start spending a lot of time together, attracting a lot of attention. And attention is exactly what you don't want when you are keeping a secret. Before long, members of the D Squad, as they are called at school are getting strange Instant Messages from a shady guy named Milner; their teacher, Miss Rasmussen, is calling private meetings with each of them and giving them pop tests that they are failing; and someone has leaked the possibility of a homework machine to the school newspaper. Just when the D Squad thinks things can't get any more out of control, Belch becomes much more powerful than they ever imagined. Soon the kids are in a race against their own creation, and the loser could end up in jail...or worse!
The Runaways
Victor Canning - 1972
On a night of wild storms, two lonely creatures escape from captivity.One of the creatures is a boy, Smiler, wrongly convicted of stealing, the other a cheetah, Yarra, leaving the Longleat Wild Life Park to have her cubs in privacy.Both are in danger from the outside world and each other, but somehow their lives become inextricably bound up as they fight for survival on the edge of Salisbury Plain.The Runaways is the first book in Victor Canning's classic children's trilogy, which continues in Flight of the Grey Goose.‘Victor Canning is one of the world’s finest story-tellers’ Good Housekeeping
Tadpole
Ruth White - 2003
Each of her older sisters seems to have cut out a niche for herself, but Carolina Collins is still trying to find her own special place in life. The girls’ hardship is softened by the sudden appearance of their favorite cousin, Tadpole, a charismatic thirteen-year-old with a knack for guitar playing. Tad sees in Carolina a spirit and talent that no one has noticed before, and he predicts that she “is gonna surprise everybody one of these days.” The Collinses soon learn the real reason for Tad’s visit, however, and the weeks that follow are filled with dread that his abusive guardian will come and take him away.But Tad is not the sort of boy to succumb to a bully, and he and Carolina both have surprises in store for everyone.A Junior Library Guild Selection Tadpole is a 2004 Bank Street - Best Children's Book of the Year.
Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb
Al Perkins - 1969
in full color. A madcap band of dancing, prancing monkeys explain hands, fingers, and thumbs to beginning readers.
Nate the Great
Marjorie Weinman Sharmat - 1972
She wants Nate to help her find it. Nate the Great must get all the facts, ask the right questions, and narrow the list of suspects so he can solve the mystery.