Patricia Hermes

Nine-year-old Elizabeth keeps a journal of her experiences in the New World as she encounters Indians, suffers hunger and the death of friends, and helps her father build their first home.

Despite the dangers, Black Cloud enjoys his life as a wild mustang colt in 1951 Nevada but when humans round up and slaughter his herd, he is rescued by a talkative girl named Annie who gives him a safe and comfortable life, lacking nothing but freedom.

Elizabeth Barker continues to write to her "friend, " her diary, as disease and lack of food further plague the suffering settlers at Jamestown.

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.

Emma's happy summer of soccer camp with best friend Luisa and visits to Rooney, the beloved old horse at the nearby stables where Annie the nanny helps out, changes when she discovers that Rooney is being sold and Luisa has some unhappy news.

When Emma and her brothers and sisters want to get a kitten and another ferret, and Emma wants their nanny to be the chaperone on her soccer team trip instead of her mother, the children decide to go on strike to try to force their parents to meet their demands.

Through the changing seasons on Hairy Bear Mountain and her father's illness, Hallie continues to wish for her father's health and a china doll's head from a store window in town.

To prove to her parents that she is grown up enough to babysit, Alex tries to stay out of trouble for two weeks.

Kevin and his friend Bailey conspire to prevent Kevin's father from moving himself and Kevin once again.

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.