In 1841, having been shipwrecked and picked up by an American whaling ship outside Japanese territorial waters, fifteen-year-old Manjiro decides to go live in America and work towards opening trade between his country and the West.
In the process of coping with a series of earthquakes which strike the frontier town of New Madrid in 1811 and 1812, fifteen-year-old Laurel discovers an unexpected romance.
Describes how the Great Auk lived before its extinction in the mid 1800s and discusses the physical characteristics, habits, and breeding of other members of the Auk family and laws to protect these rare birds.
In 1935, after his family loses their farm and is forced to move onto an Arkansas plantation, sixth grader Talmadge struggles to endure their harsh new life and fights to stay in school against his mother's wishes.
A biography of the Australian nurse who developed a successful method of treating and rehabilitating polio patients and persisted in the struggle, despite ridicule and opposition, to have her methods accepted.
