20th century

Discusses the development of the United States as a powerful nation from 1880 to 1990.

Presents village life in Greece, paying a visit to the island of Mykonos; and discusses the Greek celebration of Easter.

During the 1950s, young Maggie struggles to will her beloved Brooklyn Dodgers to a victory in the World Series and wishes that her friend Jim, a soldier in Korea, would answer her letters.

Uses the form of a blues song to share the story of the year-long bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama, sparked by seamstress Rosa Parks' refusal to give up her seat on a city bus to a white passenger in 1955, which resulted in a repeal of the Jim Crow segregation laws.

Eleven-year-old Meggie Dillon shares her feelings and experiences on the homefront during World War II after her family moves from Rockaway, New York to Willow Run, Michigan.

Reminiscences of the pleasures of life in the mountains as a child.

In 1911, Turner Buckminster hates his new home of Phippsburg, Maine, but things improve when he meets Lizzie Bright Griffin, a girl from a poor, nearby island community founded by former slaves that the town fathers--and Turner's--want to change into a tourist spot.

Left an orphan after the influenza epidemic in British East Africa in 1919, thirteen-year-old Rachel is tricked into assuming a deceased neighbor's identity to travel to England, where her only dream is to return to Africa and rebuild her parents' mission hospital.

During the 1967 school year, on Wednesday afternoons when all his classmates go to either Catechism or Hebrew school, seventh-grader Holling Hoodhood stays in Mrs. Baker's classroom where they read the plays of William Shakespeare and Holling learns much of value about the world he lives in.

Julie Albright, forced to move with her mom following her parents' divorce, is excited to learn her new school has a basketball team; but when the coach says girls are not allowed on the team, she jeopardizes her chances for making new friends by deciding to fight for her right to play.