Little House in the Highlands


Melissa Wiley - 1999
    It's 1788, and six year old Martha lives in a little stone house in Glencraid, Scotland. Martha's father is Laird Glencaraid, and the life of the Laird's daughter is not always easy for a lively girl like Martha. She would rather be running barefoot through the fields of heather and listening to magical tales of fairies and other Wee Folk than learning to sew like a proper young lady. But between her dreaded sewing lessons, Martha still finds time to play on the rolling Scottish hills.

Behind the Masks: The Diary of Angeline Reddy, Bodie, California, 1880


Susan Patron - 2012
    When her father, Bodie's greatest lawyer, is declared murdered, Angie knows deep in her heart that he isn't dead and decides it is up to her to solve the mystery of what happened to him. But when her mother takes ill and a mysterious ghost appears, putting together the puzzle pieces seems impossible. Not to mention, a gang of vigilantes, the 601, is raging out of control, running folks out of town, and nobody seems safe.Will Angie, with the help of her friends Ellie and Ling Loi, and the mysterious and tragically handsome Antoine, be able to uncover the secret of her father's disappearance?

The Journal of C.J. Jackson: A Dust Bowl Migrant, Oklahoma to California, 1935


William Durbin - 2002
    Jackson, a young farmer whose family is forced to abandon their farm and seek a new life in California. April 10, 1935 The dust has been blowing bad for several years in a row now. And with crop failures coming back to back like they have, hundreds of families have lost their farms. A Monday never passes without Sheriff Jake Allison posting a notice of foreclosure at the Boise City courthouse. Times are so rough, that when they hold an auction to sell a place, the only people that show up are the banks and the insurance companies. Nobody else has a nickel. C.J. Jackson is a young man living through one of the most tragic times in the Dust Bowl of an America fraught with political, economic, and environmental problems. In this intense journal of life in the Oklahoma panhandle, C.J. tells it like it is-and it is bad.

Little House on Rocky Ridge


Roger Lea MacBride - 1993
    In a covered wagon containing all their possessions, they make their way across the drought-stricken Midwest to the lush green valleys of southern Missouri. The journey is long and not always easy, but at the end is the promise of a new home and a new life for the Wilders.Little House on Rocky Ridge is the first book in The Rose Years, an ongoing series about another spirited girl from America's most beloved pioneer family.

Battle of Britain: Harry Woods, England, 1939-1941


Chris Priestley - 2002
    When his friend Lenny loses his leg in a dogfight with the Luftwaffe, Harry is determined to fight on. That is, until his plane is hit and he finds himself tumbling through the air high above the English Channel.

Unsinkable


Gordon Korman - 2011
    Paddy is a stowaway, escaping a deadly past. Sophie's mother is delivered to the ship by police - after she and Sophie have been arrested. Juliana's father is an eccentric whose riches can barely hide his madness. And Alfie is hiding a secret that could get him kicked off the ship immediately.The lives of these four passengers will be forever linked with the fate of Titanic. And the farther they get from shore, the more the danger looms. . . .

By the Great Horn Spoon!


Sid Fleischman - 1963
    Joined by his trusty butler, Praiseworthy, Jack finds adventure and trouble at every turn. Will Jack strike gold in San Francisco or come home empty-handed? This new edition features illustrations by Brett Helquist.

An Old-Fashioned Girl


Louisa May Alcott - 1869
    For the finished product, however, Alcott continued the story from the chapter "Six Years Afterwards" and so it ended up with nineteen chapters in all. The book revolves around Polly Milton, the old-fashioned girl who titles the story. Polly visits her wealthy friend Fanny Shaw in the city and is overwhelmed by the fashionable and urban life they live--but also left out because of her "countrified" manners and outdated clothes.

Lady of Ch'iao Kuo: Red Bird of the South, Southern China, A.D. 531


Laurence Yep - 2001
    A born leader, Lady of Ch'iao Kuo, also known as Princess Redbird, is both courageous and keenly intelligent.

The Cay


Theodore Taylor - 1969
    War has always been a game to him, and he’s eager to glimpse it firsthand–until the freighter he and his mother are traveling to the United States on is torpedoed.   When Phillip comes to, he is on a small raft in the middle of the sea. Besides Stew Cat, his only companion is an old West Indian, Timothy. Phillip remembers his mother’s warning about black people: “They are different, and they live differently.”    But by the time the castaways arrive on a small island, Phillip’s head injury has made him blind and dependent on Timothy.

We All Fall Down


Eric Walters - 2006
    As part of a school assignment, all the students in his class will be going with their parents tomorrow, but Will isn’t excited about it – he’d rather sleep in and do nothing with his friends. His father doesn’t even have an exciting job like his best friend James’s father, who is a fireman. Will’s dad works for an international trading company and has to wake up early every morning to commute to his office on the 85th floor in the south building of the World Trade Center in Manhattan. Will doesn’t see his father very often because of the hours he puts in at the office. He doubts that his dad will bother making time for him tomorrow even when they are supposed to be spending the day together.

Incident at Hawk's Hill


Allan W. Eckert - 1971
    One June day in 1870, Ben wanders away from his home on Hawk's Hill and disappears into the waving prairie grass. This is the story of how a shy, lonely boy survives for months in the wilds and forges a bond with a female badger. ALA Notable Book. Newbery Honor Book.

Flying Ace: Jack Fairfax, Royal Flying Corps, 1915-1918


Jim Eldridge - 2003
    The Fairfaxes are steeped in the military tradition, and don't approve of Jack's volunteering for the Royal Flying Corps. New-fangled flying machines are nothing to do with 'proper' warfare. Nevertheless, Jack takes to the skies in his Bleriot plane, and faces the skills of the German ace pilots over the Somme. When his best friend is shot down by one of them, he vows to avenge him.

Kirsten's Boxed Set


Janet Beeler Shaw - 1990
    Everything looks so different from the life Kirsten knew back in Sweden--the ways people talk and dress seem strange! Getting lost in a big city and parting with her best friend only add to Kirsten’s worry. Will she ever feel at home here? It is only when the Larsons arrive at a tiny farm on the edge of the frontier that Kirsten believes Papa’s promise--America will be a land filled with opportunity for them all.6 book boxed set featuring 1854 Kirsten, An American Girl.

The Journal of Douglas Allen Deeds: The Donner Party Expedition, 1846


Rodman Philbrick - 2001
    Douglas Deeds, a fifteen-year-old orphan, keeps a journal of his travels by wagon train as a member of the ill-fated Donner Party, which became stranded in the Sierra Nevada mountains in the winter of 1846-47.