Pa's homestead thrives, Laura gets her first job in town, blackbirds eat the corn and oats crops, Mary goes to college, and Laura gets into trouble at school, but becomes a certified school teacher.
Andrew hopes for excitement when his family moves from their farm to Prairietown in 1836, but things seem pretty tame until he overhears talk about a mysterious night rider.
The Alden children suspect that the other guests are somehow involved when things begin to disappear at the bed and breakfast where they are staying in Washington, D.C.
Living with his family in the rugged, often dangerous, Wyoming mountains in the 1860's, twelve-year-old Adam finds his courage put to the test when he is left in charge of the household during his stepfather's absence.
Ten-year-old Kirsten is proud and excited when she finds a bee tree full of honey, one of the natural treasures of her Minnesota frontier world, but she exposes herself to great danger by trying to harvest the honey by herself.
Filled with resentment over the attention showered upon her twin sister, and awaiting the day she can leave her town behind, young Louise meets a wise old sea captain and begins learning how to let go of her anger.
Happy to spend his summer vacation at home in the city, eight-year-old Jay is horrified by his parent's plan to spend two weeks in the Vermont woods sharing a house with another family.
