Provides information about Illinois, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, from their geography, history, and government to their economy, population demographics, and major cities.
In 1871, a tragic fire destroyed a major section of Chicago, Illinois, killing nearly 300 people and leaving more than 100,000 homeless. These are the stories of those who experienced it.
Recovering from the flu that has decimated the world in 1918, Ivy, a girl with the ability to see ghosts, is shattered by the breakdown of societal governance and her father's and brother's role in the murder of a young German.
Told from two viewpoints, Derek Fitzpatrick, kicked out of school, must move with his stepmother to her childhood home in Illinois, where he meets Ashtyn Parker, who may be able to earn a football scholarship with Derek's help.
Sixteen-year-old Callie Knowles fights her compulsion to write constantly, even on herself, as she struggles to cope with foster care, her mother's life in a mental institution, and her belief that she killed her father, a minister, who has been missing for a year.
Through archival photographs and informational text, highlights gangsters in Chicago during the 1920s and the politicians who allowed organized crime to thrive in the city.
In a small town near Chicago in 1953, twelve-year-old Tommy faces escalating problems at home, among his Catholic school friends, and with the threat of a communist living nearby, but taking over his hospitalized sister's paper route introduces him to neighbors who he comes to rely on for help.
Rebecca Robbins' attempts to sell off the roller rink she inherited are perhaps completely destroyed when the body of the town's handyman is found in one of the rink's bathrooms. When the police prove ineffectual she determines to do her own kind of sleuthing--with the help of the handsome veterinarian and his retired circus camel maybe--but when she closes in on the identity of the murderer she suddenly realizes that being an amateur sleuth is no protection from harm.
Lucy Fooshee has it made, being newly married to the second-richest farmer in Palmyra and having a big house, a large wardrobe, and an attractive appearance, but when handsome Native-American Billy Lee arrives in town she discovers she wants something else.
Told from his point of view, continues the love story of Bennett, a time traveler from 2012 San Francisco, and Anna, sixteen, of 1995 Evanston, Illinois, as they try to make their relationship work despite his fear that it is not meant to be.
