Excerpts from the diary of William Bircher, a fifteen-year-old Minnesotan who was a drummer during the Civil War. Supplemented by sidebars, activities, and a timeline of the era.
Since the death of his older brother, thirteen-year-old Billy Baggs has had a distant relationship with his father, but life on their farm in Northern Minnesota begins to change when he starts to play baseball.
In 1902 sixteen-year-old Kristin travels with her family from Sweden to a new life in Minnesota, where she finds herself frustrated by the restrictions placed on what girls of her age are expected or allowed to do.
In 1940, thirteen-year-old Evvy Hoffmeister and her newfound friends struggle to get well at Loon Lake Sanatorium, where they are being treated for tuberculosis.
Still coping with her brother's death and her parents' subsequent divorce, thirteen-year-old Alex finds herself stranded on a small, deserted island in Minnesota with an injured eaglet.
Explains how to draw some of Minnesota's sights and symbols, including the state seal, the official flower, and the state capitol building in St. Paul.
In 1905 fifteen-year-old Otto describes in his journal how he travels from Finland to America, joining his father in a dreary iron mining community in Minnesota and becoming involved in a union fight for better working conditions.
