Quila, age twelve, lives with her father in a lighthouse during the mid 19th century. After a shipwreck, they rescue a baby named Cecelia, who floats to the lighthouse trapped between two mattresses. Soon after, Quila and her father struggle to keep the child when Cecelia's aunt comes to stay.

Reviewed by: sc

Date read: 4/13/2009

ISBN-10: 0440419700

ISBN-13: 9780440419709

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In ancient Sparta, a girl is sold as part of her father's rent. Her life changes when she takes on the appearance of a dead princess.

Reviewed by: St. Charles Reader

Date read: 11/12/2009

ISBN-10: 0385729456

ISBN-13: 9780385729451

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It's the 1950's in the American South. Tricia Ann is on top of the world. Her Grandmother is finally ready to allow her to go Someplace Special all by herself, even though it means taking a bus and walking quite a bit further after that. Nashville is segregated, and under Jim Crow laws, Tricia Ann isn't allowed to go everywhere white people can. She can only sit at the back of the bus. She can't sit on just any park bench when she's tired, nor can she drink from any water fountain when she's thirsty. When an enthusiastic crowd mistakenly sweeps her inside an elegant hotel lobby, she is rudely told she isn't welcome there. As she passes a movie theater, she realizes that if she did want to go in, she'd have to enter through the back door and sit in the 'buzzard's roost.' Patricia Ann now realizes how hard it is to go Someplace Special by herself, she just doesn't know if she can make it alone. Then she hears her Grandmother's voice telling her 'Getting Someplace Special is not an easy route. But don't study on quittin', just keep walking straight ahead ' and you'll make it'. Yes, she does get to Someplace Special - where all are welcome. Where is Someplace Special? You'll have to read 'Goin' Someplace Special' to find out. This story is based on true events from Patricia McKissacks' childhood.

Reviewed by: sc

Date read: 7/6/2009

ISBN-10: 0689818858

ISBN-13: 9780689818851

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After ten-year-old Hattie, and her twelve-year-old brother, Pheme's mother dies, they are sent to live with their cold-hearted Cousin Tirzah, while their father hunts gold in the mountains of Colorado in 1882. While waiting for their father to return, the two befriend a nearby woodsman, who gives them a sense of family that they desperately need.

Reviewed by: sc

Date read: 4/13/2009

ISBN-10: 0802783716

ISBN-13: 9780802783714

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When Beryl Markham was a small girl, she and her father settled in East Africa. This was the land of rolling savannahs, sparkling oases, majestic animals, and where a little girl was eaten by a lion. In this story 'The Good Lion,' we learn how Beryl's father wisely instructs her on the dangers of Africa. He tells her that this even includes, Paddy, Elkington's TAME lion. He cautions her by telling her that, 'a tame lion is an unnatural lion and whatever is unnatural is untrustworthy'. In this story, we are asked to ponder the question, should a lion be punished for acting like a lion?

Similar books: We're Going on a Lion Hunt by David Axtell; The Time of the Lion by Caroline Pitcher; Lion on the Run by Marian Rumsey; Women of the Wind: Early Women Aviators by Wanda Langley; Wings and Rockets: The Story of Women in Air and Space by Jeannine Atkins

Reviewed by: mb

Date read: 8/2/2010

ISBN-10: 0618563067

ISBN-13: 9780618563067

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