Sixth-grader Carly's assignment to interview a reclusive, brooding classmate leads her to discover some of the events that have caused his antisocial and abusive family's negative impact on their Missouri farming community, and Carly's family in particular.
During the War of 1812, when settlers at Fort Cooper, Missouri, are besieged by a coalition of Indian nations allied with the British, twelve-year-old Millie volunteers to ride to nearby Fort Hempstead for reinforcements.
Young Huckleberry Finn, in flight from his murderous father, and Jim, an escaped slave, pilot their raft down the Mississippi River in search of freedom.
After moving from South Dakota, Rose Wilder eventually makes friends, proves herself to be the best speller in her class, and copes with a difficult teacher at her new Missouri school.
"As a New York-to-Missouri transplant in 1943, ten-year-old Susan Marcus discovers a world of prejudice right in her own backyard and makes a small but courageous stand toward equality"--Provided by publisher.
In 1856, a cholera outbreak forces nine-year-old Meg Wells to leave her family and comfortable life in St. Louis to live with relatives in frontier Kansas.
