historical fiction

Rachel has escaped the anti-semitic violence of her home town in Russia, and has finally arrived in California to start a new life despite the challenges of poverty and the great California earthquake.

"A fourth action-filled puzzler for teen Sherlock as he plunges into a fight for his life and battles to discover what has happened to his missing friends"--Provided by publisher.

In 1903, Rachel, a Jew who left Russia with her family on the Trans-Siberian Railway to the coast to board a ship for Shanghai, China, and her friend Sergei, who left home for a factory job in St. Petersburg and joined rebelling workers, write letters to one another, describing the challenges they face and hope for their futures.

" ... chronicles the sweeping history of modern China through the lens of the nation's controversial one-child policy. Frog opens with a playwright nicknamed Tadpole who plans to write about his aunt. In her youth, Gugu--the beautiful daughter of a famous doctor and staunch Communist--is revered for her skill as a midwife. But when her lover defects, Gugu's own loyalty to the Party is questioned. She decides to prove her allegiance by strictly enforcing the one-child policy, keeping tabs on the number of children in the village, and performing abortions on women as many as eight months pregnant. In sharply personal prose, Mo Yan depicts a world of desperate families, illegal surrogates, forced abortions, and the guilt of those who must enforce the policy ... "--Provided by publisher.

An abridged version of the story of five-year-old Charlotte Tucker, who would grow up to become the grandmother of Laura Ingalls Wilder, as she feels the effects of the War of 1812 while living with her family near Boston.

In Paris, France, the Van Goethem sisters struggle for survival after the sudden death of their father, a situation that prompts young Marie's ballet training and her introduction to a genius painter.

In 1509 Ireland, Mara is sent to the independent kingdom of Burren to investigate the death of a man who was found dead two days after the May Day festival, but when she arrives, she has a hard time getting any of the people to discuss what has happened and is left to solve the mystery on her own.

Rootless and heartbroken Stephen Wraysford joins the army at the outbreak of World War I. He and his men are given the assignment to tunnel under the German lines and set off bombs. The comaraderie, love, and loyalty of the soldiers contrasts with the horrors of the underground, air, and trench warfare.

The alternating narratives of art tutor Samuel Godwin and governess Charlotte Agnew, who work for the wealthy Farrow family in 1898 England, reveal the secrets that almost everyone in the household is hiding.

Former slave Halfdan Hroriksson, now a Viking warrior, leaves home to find what fate has in store for him, and to fulfill his oath to kill the man who murdered his brother.