Hermes, Patricia

Traveling with his owners from Missouri to Oregon in 1848, Koda, an energetic two-year-old quarter horse, finds the long journey increasingly tedious and tiring until his young owner goes missing on the trail and he must use all his skills to find her.

With her mother dead and her father an alcoholic who disappears for days at a time, Gabrielle must assume responsibility for her younger brother Will and herself, barely making ends meet and afraid to put her trust in anyone.

Late in 1848, nine-year-old Joshua McCullough starts a second journal, this time recording events in Willamette Valley, Oregon Territory, as his family and others they met on the trail begin to get settled.

KT's friendship with her two best friends is threatened when KT is selected for the talented and gifted program at school.

Abandoned by their mother after the death of their father, three youngsters are determined to keep their situation a secret so that the authorities will not split them up and send them to foster homes.

When eleven-year-old Sam visits her grandfather's ranch for the first time, she finds a new life very different from the one she has known with her vagabond mother and discovers what really matters most to her.

Christmas is just around the corner, and Katie Potts can't seem to stop causing trouble at school. Even her best friend, Amelia, is mad at her! Daddy keeps telling her she's a good girl. But Katie wonders if he's right, and if Santa Claus will bring presents to someone like her.

Interviews with parents and teenagers explore some of the myths and realities of suicide examining such aspects as motives, warning signs, effects on others, and prevention.

A school project propels Brady Abbot and her grandfather on a search for her father who left them six years earlier.

Twelve-year-old Missy tries to learn more about her mother's odd behavior as she and her two friends share some secrets during a long, hot summer in Mississippi toward the end of World War II.