Burnham Memorial Library

From the Newbery Award-winning author of Across Five Aprils and Up a Road Slowly comes a tale of a brave young man’s struggle to find his own strength during the Great Depression.
“A powerfully moving story.”—Chicago Daily News
In 1932, American's dreams were simple: a job, food to eat, a place to sleep, and shoes without holes. But for millions of people these simple needs were nothing...

In 1913 Russia, twelve-year-old Katya eagerly anticipates leaving her St. Petersburg home, though not her older cousin Misha, to join her mother, a lady in waiting in the household of Tsar Nicholas II, but the ensuing years bring world war, revolution, and undreamed of changes to her life.

"A sudden snowstorm traps the Aldens in a mountain cabin! The cabin is cozy, but the children hear strange noises at night and find a coded message carved into the closet door. Can the children crack the code and solve their snowbound mystery?"--

Living an isolated life in their strict father's parsonage out on the English moors, the Brontë siblings have always been inseparable, their vivid imaginations actually transporting them into their created worlds, but when Branwell begins to slip into madness and the sisters feel their real lives slipping away, they must weigh the cost of their powerful imaginations, even as their characters refuse to let them go.

While Laura Ingalls grows up in a little house on the western prairie, Almanzo Wilder is living on a big farm in New York State. Almanzo and his brother and sisters help with the summer planting and fall harvest. In winter there is wood to be chopped and great slabs of ice to be cut from the river and stored. Almanzo wishes for just one thing--his very own horse--but he must prove that he is ready for such a big responsibility.

"What will the Aldens discover on a vacation to a deserted island? Adapted from Gertrude Chandler Warner's story of the same name, this early reader allows children to start reading with a Boxcar Children classic."--

Henrietta, whose favorite color is red, describes some of her life with her baby brother Albert, her dog Madge, her best friend Olive.

After their mother sets up a new list of household chores for them to do, Sophie and her siblings argue about housekeeping and finally go on strike.

The family routine is upset during Ramona's year in second grade when her father unexpectedly loses his job.