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TNRD Kids' Zone

Alcott, Louisa M.
Little Women

Four very different sisters lead interesting lives while their father is away at war.

Armstrong, William H.
Sounder

Angry and humiliated when his father is jailed for stealing food for his family, a young black boy grows in courage by learning to read with the help of the devoted dog Sounder.

Arrington, Frances
Bluestem

With their father away and their mother traumatized by some unknown event, eleven-year-old Polly and her younger sister are left to take care of themselves and their prairie homestead.

Babbitt, Natalie
Tuck Everlasting

The Tuck family is confronted with a troubling situation when they discover that a ten-year-old girl and a stranger now share their secret of a spring whose water prevents people from growing older.

Baylis-White, Mary
Sheltering Rebecca

In the days before the Second World War, twelve-year-old Sally becomes friends with Rebecca, a young Jewish refugee from Germany.

Curry, Jane L.
The Egyptian Box

Tee is happy to find that the ancient Egyptian box she inherits holds a spirit who will serve her, until she notices changes in her servant's appearance and behavior.

Cushman, Karen
Catherine, Called Birdy

The thirteen-year-old daughter of an English country knight keeps a journal in which she records the events of her life, particularly her longing for adventures.

Disher, Garry
The Bamboo Flute

In a rural Australian community in 1932, twelve-year-old Paul has his predictable life brightened when a drifter helps him make a flute and teaches him how to play it.

Giff, Patricia R.
Nory Ryan's Song

When a terrible blight attacks Ireland's potato crop in 1845, twelve-year-old Nory Ryan's courage helps her family and neighbours survive.

Jocelyn, Marthe
Earthly Astonishments

In 1884, after being sold as a servant by her parents to a harsh school mistress, tiny twelve-year-old Josephine, who stands less than twenty-nine inches tall, finds refuge in the Museum of Earthly Astonishments in New York City.

Ketchum, Liza
Orphan Journey Home

In 1828, while traveling from Illinois to Kentucky, twelve-year- old Jesse and her two brothers and sister lose their parents to the milk sickness and must try to finish the dangerous journey by themselves.

Koller, Jackie F.
Nothing To Fear

When his father moves away to find work and his mother becomes ill, Danny struggles to help his family during the Great Depression.

Love, D. Anne
Bess's Log Cabin Quilt

With her father away and her mother ill with fever, ten-year-old Bess works hard on a log cabin quilt to save the family farm.

Manley, Joan B.
She Flew No Flags

In early 1944, as the war rages around them, an American family travels from India to the United States by ship, under blackout conditions, through the enemy waters of the Indian and Pacific Oceans.

Mayerson, Evelyn W.
Cat Who Escaped From Steerage

Living in the steerage section of a steamship bound for America, Chanah tries to keep her newly found cat a secret.

Namioka, Lensey
Island of Ogres

An unemployed samurai reluctantly helps solve a mystery and prevent the overthrow of a young ruler on an island in medieval Japan.

Nixon, Joan L.
Family Apart

When their mother can no longer support them, six siblings are sent from New York City to live with farm families in Missouri.

Paulsen, Gary
Night John

Twelve-year-old Sarny's brutal life as a slave becomes even more dangerous when a newly arrived slave offers to teach her to read.

Recorvits, Helen
Goodbye Walter Malinski

In 1934, even though life is hard for Wanda Malinski and her family she enjoys school, good times with her best friend, and a special relationship with her older brother.

Richards, David
Soldier Boys

A Metis boy takes his father’s gun and enlists as a scout to spy on the English camp. As a result in 1885, the Battle of Fish Creek was a turning point in Canada's history.

Salisbury, Graham
Under the Blood-Red Sun

Tomikazu Nakaji's biggest concerns are baseball, homework, and a local bully, until life with his Japanese family in Hawaii changes drastically after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in December 1941.

Speare, Elizabeth G.
Sign of the Beaver

Left alone to guard the family's wilderness home in Maine, a boy is hard-pressed to survive until local Indians teach him their skills.

Wiggin, Kate D.
Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm

When Rebecca comes from the busy family farm to live with her aunts in Riverboro, they don't know how to cope with a wild ten-year-old.

Wiley, Melissa
Little House in the Highlands

The childhood adventures in the Scottish countryside of six-year- old Martha Morse, who would grow up to become the great-grand- mother of author Laura Ingalls Wilder.

Yolen, Jane
Queens Own Fool

When twelve-year-old Nicola travels to serve as the fool for Queen Mary, Queen of Scots, she experiences the poltical and religious upheavals in both France and Scotland.