Tales of Young Americans series

Philadelphia 1777 is no place for the faint of heart. The rumble of war with the British grows louder each day, and spies for and against the Patriots are everywhere. No one is above suspicion. Still, everyday life must go on and young Maddy Rose must help her mother, especially since her father's death at the Battle of Princeton and now with her beloved brother Jonathan off with Washington's army. But when childhood games become life-and-death actions,...

Eleven-year-old Gave enlists in the Union Army in Pennsylvania along with his older brother Davy and, as a bugler, does his best to protect Davy during the Battle of Gettysburg.

Even before they immigrate to America, Hanna and her family dream of the new life they will have there. 'You will see, Hanna,' Papa said. 'There are streets of gold.' But when they arrive, they find life very different from what they had imagined. Their apartment is small and Hanna and her brothers must sleep on a mattress on the floor. Mama spends her days knitting shawls and sweaters to sell on the streets but no one stops to buy. And Papa can find...

In 1932, Akron, Ohio was no better off than other parts of the country. Since Black Tuesday in '29, companies are closed, men all over the state are out of work, and families are running out of hope. Thirteen-year-old Rudy wants to help but doesn't know where to turn. His father, sullen and withdrawn, spends his time sulking on their front porch. His mother is desperate, not knowing how she will feed and care for her family. When Rudy learns of other...

Janie is not exactly sure why her daddy is riding a bus from Indianapolis to Washington, D.C. She knows why she has to go-to stay out of her mother's way, especially with the twins now teething. But Daddy wants to hear a man named Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. speak and, to keep out of trouble, Janie is sent along. Riding the bus with them is a mishmash of people, black and white, young and old. They seem very different from Janie. As the bus travels...

In the mid-1800s thousands of pioneers crossed the western plains of the United States using the 2,000-mile pathway called the Oregon Trail. Minnow and her family live in one of the many native villages scattered across the plains. She has a lively sense of adventure and her favorite pastime is swimming in the nearby river where she rightly earns her nickname. Rose and her family are traveling in one of the many wagon trains making their way west....

While traveling along the Oregon Trail, ten-year-old Cora and her new baby sister suffer the loss of their mother and are separated, but Cora stitches a book to tell the baby of their journey.

Twelve-year-old Lee, an orphan, reluctantly leaves his grandparents in China for the long sea voyage to San Francisco, where he and other immigrants undergo examinations at Angel Island Immigration Station.

As the Apollo 11 mission draws to a close there is a crisis at the tracking station on Guam: the antenna that will track the spacecraft during reentry, and allow mission control to communicate with the astronauts is stuck--and ten-year-old Marty is the only one small enough to reach in and grease the ball bearings that allow the antenna to move.

Polly misses her father, a soldier fighting in France during World War I, and at home everything is rationed; Polly wants to do her part to help, so she and her friends organize a parade to collect peach pits which are used in the manufacture of gas masks.