juvenile fiction

Bee faces friction at home and at school when her widowed father begins seriously dating Jazzi, who seems to take over the house and their lives, but as shared secrets and common interests finally begin to draw them together, Jazzi accidentally makes a terrible mistake.

Young Oney Judge risks everything to escape a life of slavery in the household of George and Martha Washington and to make her own way as a free black woman.

Despite criticism for his lack of "accomplishments," Takiboki finds contentment sweeping flower blossoms and raking the sand and gravel in the monks' temple garden. Includes a note on the art and beauty of Japanese gardens.

Two orphaned peasant children discover a mysterious pouch, the contents of which lead them to the majestic Castle Corona, where their lives may be transformed forever.

When Sam, who can barely read, discovers an old newspaper clipping just before his eleventh birthday, it brings forth memories from his past, and, with the help of a new friend at school and the castle they are building for a school project, his questions are eventually answered.

Twelve-year-old Grace Forcier and her friend Arthur, taken out of school and put to work in a Vermont textile mill in 1910, are championed by their teacher who urges them to write the National Child Labor Committee, an action only Grace seems to realize will have serious repercussions.

In the mid-1800s. with both her father and her uncle in jail on an assault charge, Maggie, her brother, and her ailing mother rush their barge along the Erie Canal to deliver their heavy cargo or lose everything.

Molly, upset by her family's move from London to the U.S., is strangely drawn to an old book about the life of Admiral Lord Nelson, and soon finds her life intertwined with that of Sam,a boy her age who served with Nelson aboard the HMS "Victory" a century earlier.

Eleven-year-old Elijah Freeman, the first free-born child in Buxton, Canada--a haven for slaves fleeing the American South in 1859--uses his wits and skills to try to bring to justice the lying preacher who has stolen money that was to be used to buy a family's freedom.

When 7-year-old Ali's greedy pet steals cherries from the wicked Sultan for whom his father keeps carrier pigeons, Ali is given three days to find 600 new cherries or his father will be thrown into the deep, dark oubliette. Includes facts about carrier pigeons and the sultan on whom this story is based, as well as an excerpt from "In Praise of Books" by al-Jahiz.