Stepping stones history

When a young pioneer girl smuggles a cat aboard the wagon train taking her family from Missouri to Oregon, it turns out to be the best thing she could have done.

Easy-to-follow text and illustration describe how Harry Houdini was inspired by the circus, and convinced his brother to attempt tightrope walking and rope tricks in a local barn.

In 1715 Italy, eight-year-old Anna Maria Lombardini arrives at a Venice orphanage with little but the special violin her father made for her, but when her teacher, Antonio Vivaldi, favors her over a fellow student, the beloved instrument winds up in a canal. Includes glossary and historical note.