5th Grade and Up

Avi

THE BARN In an effort to fulfill their dying father's last request, 9-year-old Ben and his brother and sister construct a barn on their land in the Oregon territory in 1855.

1994

106 p.

DeFelice, Cynthia

THE APPRENTICESHIP OF LUCAS WHITAKER 1850's Connecticut. After Lucas' mother dies of consumption (tuberculosis) he apprentices himself to a doctor who is very traditional.

1996

151 p.

Erdrich, Louise

THE GAME OF SILENCE Sequel to: The birchbark house. For sequel see: The porcupine year. Nine-year-old Omakayas, of the Ojibwa tribe, moves west with her family in 1849. Her name is Omakayas, or Little Frog, because her first step was a hop, and she lives on an island in Lake Superior.It is 1850, and the lives of the Ojibwe have returned to a familiar rhythm: they build their birchbark houses in the summer, go to the ricing camps in the fall to harvest and feast, and move to their cozy cedar log cabins near the town of LaPointe before the first snows. The satisfying routines of Omakayas's days are interrupted by a surprise visit from a group of desperate and mysterious people. From them, she learns that all their lives may drastically change. The chimookomanag, or white people, want Omakayas and her people to leave their island in Lake Superior and move farther west. Omakayas realizes that something so valuable, so important that she never knew she had it in the first place, is in danger: Her home. Her way of life.

2005

256 pages

Erdrich, Louise

THE PORCUPINE YEAR Sequel to: The Game of Silence. In 1852, forced by the United States government to leave their beloved Island of the Golden Breasted Woodpecker, fourteen-year-old Omokayas and her Ojibwe family travel in search of a new home.

2008

193 pages

Henty, G. A

A TALE OF THE WESTERN PLAINS or REDSKIN AND COWBOY 1851. A young boy leaves England for adventure in the West--becoming a lumberjack, hunter, cowboy, Indian fighter, and gold miner and finds out the truth about his "uncle" in England.

1997

425 p.

Hermes, Patricia

CALLING ME HOME 12-year old Abbie struggles to accept her father’s desire to make a new home for his family on the Nebraska prairies of the late 1850’s.

1998

138 p.

Holm, Jennifer

BOSTON JANE WILDERNESS DAYS Far from her native Philadelphia, Miss Jane Peck continues to prove that she's more than an etiquette-schooled graduate of Miss Hepplewhite's Young Ladies Academy as she braves the untamed wilderness of Washington Territory in the mid 1850s.

2002

239 p.

Holm, Jennifer

BOSTON JANE THE CLAIM sequel to:Boston Jane: wilderness days The arrival of her spiteful nemisis Sally Biddle from Philadelphia and the return of her corrupt ex-fiance Richard Baldt spell trouble for 17-year-old Miss Jane Peck, who has survived on her own in Shoalwater Bay, a community of white settlers and Chinook Indians in the 1850's Washington Territory.

2004

226 p.

Karr, Kathleen

EXILED MEMOIRS OF A CAMEL A first-person narrative from a camel's viewpoint about being sent from Egypt to serve in the United States Camel Corps, and life on the Mojave Desert before and during the Civil War. Beins in 1856.

2004

240 p.

McGill, Alice

MILES' SONG In 1851 in South Carolina, Miles, a 12-year-old slave, is sent to a "breaking ground" to have his spirit broken but endures the experience by secretly taking reading lessons from another slave.

2000

213 p.

Murrow, Liza

WEST AGAINST THE WIND 1850 Independence, Missouri to the Pacific. 14-year-old Abby seeks both her father and the secret of a handsome but mysterious boy during an arduous journey by wagon train from the middle of the country to the Pacific coast in 1850.

1987

232 p.

Pennington, Kate

BRIEF CANDLE Winter is harsh for young Emily Bronte, her sisters Charlotte and Anne, and their brother Branwell. Cooped up in the bleak parsonage, the only break from dull routine comes when they write adventures for the heroes of their secret worlds of Gondal and Angria or when freedom-loving Emily is able to escape onto the moor. Then one day, while out walking with her dog, Emily stumbles across the mysterious outcast, Heslington, whose story of lost love leaves her spellbound. There and then, Emily resolves to help him out of his wretched state whatever the danger. Kate Pennington is the pseudonym of a best-selling author, whose books have sold in the millions.

2005

262 p.

Pfeffer, Susan Beth

AMY MAKES A FRIEND Portraits of Little Women Desperate for art lessons, Amy hopes to manipulate her friendship with two other girls to get what she wants. Massachusetts 1850’s.

1998

90 p.

Putnam, Alice

WESTERLING Traveling with his family in a wagon train from Missouri to Oregon in 1850, 11-year-old Jason finds a stray dog during the dangerous journey.

1990

90 p.

Rinaldi, Ann

MINE EYES HAVE SEEN In the summer of 1859, 15-year-old Annie travels to the Maryland farm where her father, John Brown, is secretly assembling his provisional army prior to their raid on the United States arsenal at nearby Harpers Ferry.

1998

273 p.

Ruby, Lois

SOON TO BE FREE Sacagawea's Story 13-year-old Dana investigates a mystery involving the old Kansas house that her parents have turned into a bed and breakfast business; in a parallel story, a Quaker boy living in the house in 1857 sets out to help some fugitive slaves to freedom.

2000

302 p.

Van Leeuwen, Jean

BOUND FOR OREGON A fictionalized account of the journey made by 9-year-old Mary Ellen Todd and her family from their home in Arkansas westward over the Oregon Trail in 1852.

1994

164 p.

Wilkins, Celia

LITTLE CITY BY THE LAKE The Caroline Yearsseries 15-year-old Caroline Quiner, who will become the mother of Laura Ingalls Wilder, moves to Milwaukee in 1855 to experience city life and attend school.

2003

309 p.

Wisler, G. Clifton

JERICHO’S JOURNEY As his family makes the long and difficult journey from Tennessee to their new home in Texas in 1852, 12-year-old Jericho Wetherby, teased by his sister and brothers about his size, learns there are many ways to grow.

1993

135 p.