19th Century

Alcott, Louisa May - Little Women (256 pages) This is the classic tale that chronicles the joys and sorrows of the four March sisters as they grow into young ladies in 19th century New England.

Armstrong, Jennifer - Black-eyed Susan (120 pages) 10-year-old Susie and her father love living on the South Dakota prairie with its vast, uninterrupted views of land and sky, but Susie’s mother greatly misses their old life in Ohio.

Auch, Mary Jane - Journey to Nowhere (202 pages) In 1815, while traveling by covered wagon to settle in the wilderness of western New York, eleven-year-old Mem experiences a flood and separation from her family.

Avi - True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle (215 pages) As the lone "young lady" on a transatlantic voyage in 1832, Charlotte learns that the captain is murderous and the crew rebellious and she becomes involved in a struggle that will change her life.
Beatty, Patricia - Wait For Me, Watch For Me, Eula Bee (221 pages) With his father and brother serving in the Confederate Army and the rest of his family murdered in a Comanche raid of their west Texas farm, 13-year-old Lewallen seeks to free himself and his younger sister from their Indian captivity.

Blos, Joan –

• A Gathering of Days (144 pages) The journal of a fourteen-year-old girl, kept the last year she lived on the family farm, records daily events in her small New Hampshire town, her father’s remarriage, and the death of her best friend.
• Brothers of the Heart (162 pages) Fourteen-year-old Shem spends six months in the Michigan wilderness alone with a dying Indian woman, who helps him, not only to survive, but to mature to the point where he can return to his family and the difficulties of life as a cripple in a frontier village.

Bohner, Charles - Bold Journey West with Lewis and Clark (171 pages) Private Hugh McNeal relates his experiences accompanying Captains Lewis and Clark on their 1804-1806 expedition in search of a northwest passage to the Pacific Ocean.
Brink, Carol Ryrie - Caddie Woodlawn (275 pages) This Newbery Award winning title tells the adventures of an eleven-year-old tomboy growing up on the Wisconsin frontier in the mid-nineteenth century.

Bruchac, Joseph - The Journal of Jesse Smoke: A Cherokee Boy (203 pages) (part of the My Name is America series) Jesse Smoke, a sixteen-year-old Cherokee, begins a journal in 1837 to record stories of his people and their difficulties as they face removal along the Trail of Tears. Includes a historical note giving details of the removal.

Burnett, Frances Hodgson –

• A Little Princess (240 pages) Sara Crew, a pupil at Miss Minchin’s London school, is left in poverty when her father dies but is later rescued by a mysterious benefactor.
• The Secret Garden (298 pages) The classic story of a ten-year-old orphan who goes to live in a lonely house on the Yorkshire moors, where she discovers an invalid cousin and the mysteries of a locked garden.

Byars, Betsy - Trouble River (158 pages) When he builds his raft, a 12-year-old boy never dreams that it will serve as the sole means of escape for himself and his grandmother when hostile Indians threaten their prairie cabin.

Calvert, Patricia –

• Bigger (137 pages) When his father disappears near the Mexican border at the end of the Civil War, twelve-year-old Tyler decides to go after him and bring him home, acquiring on the journey a strange dog which he names Bigger.
• Sooner (166 pages) With the realization that his father may not return now that the Civil War is over, thirteen-year-old Tyler finds himself the man of their Missouri farm and the master of a new dog, Sooner.
Clements, Bruce - I Tell a Lie Every So Often (149 pages) In 1848 a fourteen-year-old Missourian, although not a habitual liar, tells two lies that start off an unusual chain of events.

Cole, Sheila - The Dragon in the Cliff (211 pages) Recounts the girlhood of the woman who made many of the important fossil discoveries in the early nineteenth century, yet never received the credit she deserved.

Collier, James Lincoln –

• Bloody Country (183 pages) In the mid-eighteenth century a family moves from Connecticut to Pennsylvania and becomes involved in the property conflict between the two states.
• Who is Carrie? (158 pages) A young black girl living in New York City in the late 18th century observes the historic events taking place around her and at the same time solves the mystery of her own identity.

Conrad, Pam - Prairie Songs (167 pages) Louisa’s life in a loving pioneer family on the Nebraska prairie is altered by the arrival of a new doctor and his beautiful, tragically frail wife.

Cushman, Karen - The Ballad of Lucy Whipple (195 pages) In 1849, 12-year-old California Morning Whipple, who renames herself Lucy, is distraught when her mother moves the family from Massachusetts to a rough California mining town.
Dalgliesh, Alice - Courage of Sarah Noble (52 pages) Remembering her mother's words, an eight-year-old girl finds courage to go alone with her father to build a new home in the wilderness and to stay with the Indians when her father must go back to bring the rest of the family.

DeFelice, Cynthia C. - Weasel (119 pages) Alone in the frontier wilderness in the winter of 1839 while his father is recovering from an injury, eleven-year-old Nathan runs afoul of the renegade killer known as Weasel and makes a surprising discovery about the concept of revenge.

Duey, Kathleen - Willow Chase, Kansas Territory, 1847 (141 pages) Part of American diaries series. In 1847, when her mother's remarriage sends them on a difficult journey to California, Willow is swept overboard fording the South Platte River and must survive and search for her family.

Fleischman, Paul - Borning Room (101 pages) In the Lott family's home, the borning room is reserved for childbirth and death. It is a room that figures large in the life of Georgina Lott, an Ohio farm girl born in 1851. Through its doors pass the members of a freethinking family, bearing news of the world beyond the window.

Garland, Sherry –

• A Line in the Sand: The Alamo Diary of Lucinda Lawrence Gonzales, Texas, 1835 (201 pages) Part of the Dear America Series. In the journal she receives for her twelfth birthday in 1835, Lucinda Lawrence describes the hardships her family and other residents of the "Texas colonies" endure when they decide to face the Mexicans in a fight for their freedom.
• Valley of the Moon: The Diary of Maria Rosalia de Milagros (217 pages) Part of the Dear America Series. The 1845-1846 diary of thirteen-year-old Maria, servant to the wealthy Spanish family which took her in when her Indian mother died. Includes a historical note about the settlement and early history of California.
Gipson, Fred - Old Yeller (158 pages) The classic, moving story of a boy and his dog in the Texas hill country of the 1860s.

Gregory, Kristiana –

• Jenny of the Tetons (119 pages) Orphaned by an Indian raid while traveling West with a wagon train, Carrie Hill is befriended by the English trapper Beaver.
• Seeds of Hope: The Gold Rush Diary of Susanna (182 pages) Part of the Dear America Series. A diary account of fourteen-year-old Susanna Fairchild's life in 1849, when her father succumbs to gold fever on the way to establish his medical practice in Oregon after losing his wife and money on their steamship journey from New York. Includes a historical note.

Hahn, Mary Downing - The Gentleman Outlaw and Me, Eli (212 pages) In 1887 Eliza, disguised as a boy and traveling towards Colorado in search of her missing father, falls in with a gentleman outlaw and joins him in his illegal schemes.

Hansen, Joyce –

• I Thought My Soul Would Rise and Fly (202 pages) Twelve-year-old Patsy keeps a diary of the ripe but confusing time following the end of the Civil War and the granting of freedom to former slaves.
• Out From This Place (135 pages) A 14-year-old black girl tries to find a fellow ex-slave, who had joined the Union army during the Civil War, during the confusing times after the emancipation of the slaves.

Harvey, Brett –

• Cassie’s Journey (unpaged) A young girl relates the hardships and dangers of traveling with her family in a covered wagon from Illinois to California during the 1860’s.
• My prairie year: based on the diary of Elenore Plaisted (38 pages) Nine-year old Elenore describes her experiences living with her family in the Dakota Territory in the late nineteenth century.

Hermes, Patricia –

• Calling Me Home (140 pages) A 12-year-old pioneer girl spends her time daydreaming about a better life than her family's isolation on the Nebraska prairie in the 1850s. Just when Abbie begins to think her wishes might come true, tragedy strikes at home--and she thinks it may be her fault.
• Westward to Home: Joshua's Journal (108 pages) Part of the My America series. In 1848, nine-year-old Joshua Martin McCullough writes a journal of his family's journey from Missouri to Oregon in a covered wagon. Includes a historical note about westward migration.

Holm, Jennifer L. - Our Only May Amelia (253 pages) With seven older brothers and a love of adventure, May just can't seem to abide her family's insistence that she behave like a proper young lady. She's sure she could do better if only there were at least one other girl living along the banks of the Nesel River in Washington in 1899. Now that Mama's going to have a baby, there may be hope.

Holland, Isabelle - The Promised Land (155 pages) Orphaned by their mother’s death, two Irish Catholic sisters find a home with a kind Protestant couple on the Kansas frontier, but their new life is suddenly threatened by the appearance of their uncle, who is determined to take them back to New York and their "true" religion.

Hooks, William - Pioneer Cat (62 pages) When a young pioneer girl smuggles a cat aboard the wagon train taking her family from Missouri to Oregon, it turns out to be the best thing she could have done.

Irwin, Hadley - Jim Dandy (135 pages) Living after the Civil War on a Kansas homestead with his stern stepfather, Caleb raises a beloved colt and becomes involved in General Custer’s raids on the Cheyenne.

Jackson, Dave –

• Abandoned on the Wild Frontier (144 pages) His friendship with Peter Cartwright, a Methodist circuit-rider evangelist, enables Gil to pursue his dream of locating his mother who was kidnapped by the Sauk Indians during the War of 1812.
• The Thieves of Tyburn Square (141 pages) In 1817 a teenage brother and sister are relieved from the abuses of Newgate Prison in London by the prison reform efforts of Quaker minister Elizabeth Fry.

Karr, Kathleen - Great Turkey Walk (199 pages) In 1860, a somewhat simple-minded fifteen-year-old boy attempts to herd one thousand turkeys from Missouri to Denver, Colorado, in hopes of selling them at a profit.

Krensky, Stephen - The Iron Dragon Never Sleeps (90 pages) In 1867, while staying with her father in a small California mining town, Winnie meets a Chinese boy close to her age and discovers the role of his people in completing the transcontinental railroad.

Lasky, Kathryn - Bone Wars (378 pages) In the mid-1870s, young teenage scout Thad Longsworth, blood brother to the Sioux visionary Black Elk, finds his destiny linked with that of three rival teams of paleontologists searching for dinosaur bones, as the Great Plains Indians prepare to go to war against the white man.

Lawlor, Laurie - Gold in the Hills (146 pages) When they are left with relatives while their father goes prospecting for gold in the Colorado mountains, Hattie and her older brother depend on their friendship with a recluse who lives nearby to make their lives bearable.

Leland, Dorothy - Sallie Fox: the Story of a Pioneer Girl (114 pages) A fictionalized account of the true story of Sallie Fox and her family’s wagon train journey from Iowa to California.

Levin, Betty - Brother Moose (213 pages) In the late 1800s, two orphan girls, aided by an Indian and his grandson, make a perilous trip to Maine to find a family.

London, Jack –

• The Call of the Wild (126 pages) This classic book tells the adventures of an unusual dog, part St. Bernard, part Scotch shepherd, forcibly taken to the Klondike gold fields where he eventually becomes the leader of a wolf pack.
• White Fang (271 pages) The adventures in the northern wilderness of a dog who is part wolf and who eventually makes his peace with man is told in this classic tale by one of America’s favorite authors.

Loveday, John - Goodbye, Buffalo Sky (265 pages) Twelve-year-old Cappy Carew is an orphaned white boy living in a settlement called Buffalo Sky on the Northern Plains in Indian Territory. Upon witnessing the murder of his teacher and friend by a Sioux, Cappy is catapulted into high adventure as he sets off across the plains in pursuit of the murderer.

MacBride, Roger Lea - Little House on Rocky Ridge (353 pages) The first of the Rocky Ridge series. In 1894, Laura Ingalls Wilder, her husband and her daughter Rose leave the Ingalls family in Dakota and make the long and difficult journey to Missouri to start a new life.

MacLachlan, Patricia - Sarah, Plain and Tall (58 pages) When their father invites a mail-order bride to come live with them in their prairie home, Caleb and Anna are captivated by their new mother and hope that she will stay in this Newbery Award winning story.

McClung, Robert M. - Hugh Glass, Mountain Man (166 pages) A fictionalized biography of the legendary hero of the Old West, who as a fur trapper in 1823, survived an attack by a grizzly bear.

Meyer, Carolyn - Where the Broken Heart Still Beats: the story of Cynthia Ann Parker (197 pages) Having been taken as a child and raised by Comanche Indians, thirty-four-year-old Cynthia Ann Parker is forcibly returned to her white relatives, where she longs for her Indian life and her only friend is her twelve-year-old cousin Lucy.

Minahan, John - Abigail’s Drum (64 pages) During the War of 1812, when British soldiers threaten the town of Scituate, Massachusetts, young Rebecca Bates and her sister Abigail, daughters of the local lighthouse keeper, find a way to save both him and the town.

Morrow, Honore - On to Oregon (239 pages) Based on the actual mid-nineteenth century journey by covered wagon of seven children through two thousand miles of wilderness and hardship from Missouri to Oregon .

Murphy, Jim - West to a Land of Plenty: The Diary of Teresa Angelino Viscardi (204 pages) part of the Dear America series. While traveling in 1883 with her Italian American family (including a meddlesome little sister) and other immigrant pioneers to a utopian community in Idaho, fourteen-year-old Teresa keeps a diary of her experiences along the way.

Myers, Walter Dean - Righteous Revenge of Artemis Bonner (140 pages) In 1880, 15-year-old Artemis Bonner, an African-American New Yorker, travels to Tombstone, Arizona, to avenge the murder of his Uncle Ugly and to find his uncle's hidden gold stake. Artemis chases the murderous scalawag from Mexico to Alaska and back again before a showdown on the exact spot where Uncle Ugly met his untimely demise.

Nixon, Joan Lowery - A Family Apart (162 pages) When their mother can no longer support them, 6 siblings are sent by the Children’s Aid Society of New York City to live with farm families in Missouri in 1860. This is the first of the Orphan Train Series.

O'Dell, Scott -

• Carlota (153 pages) A young girl relates her feelings and experiences as a participant in the battle of San Pasqual during the last days of the war between the Californians and Americans.
• Streams to the River, River to the Sea: a novel of Sacagawea (191 pages) A young Indian woman, accompanied by her infant and cruel husband, experiences joy and heartbreak when she joins the Lewis and Clark Expedition seeking a way to the Pacific.

Paulsen, Gary - Mr. Tucket (166 pages) A boy captured by Indians on his way West is befriended by a one-armed man who rescues him, teaches him to shoot, and shows him how to survive on his own.

Pryor, Bonnie - Luke: On the Golden Trail, 1849 (163 pages) Part of the American adventures series. In 1849 eleven-year-old Luke leaves his family's farm home in Iowa, accepts his uncle's offer of a chance for an education, and travels with his relative to Boston.

Ruckman, Ivy - In Care of Cassie Tucker (166 pages) It's 1899 in Nebraska and Cassie's cousin Evan is coming to visit the family farm. As a carefree Indian summer propels the Tucker family toward year's end, Mother Nature tests them with a number of natural disasters. Cassie and Evan must fight for their lives as their family becomes separated.

Shaw, Janet Beeler - Meet Kirsten, an American Girl (59 pages) 9-year-old Kirsten and her family experience many hardships as they travel from Sweden to Minnesota in 1854. This is the first of the "Kirsten" books that deals with frontier life.

Taylor, Theodore – Walking Up a Rainbow: Being the True Version of the Long and Hazardous Journey of Susan D. Carlisle, Mrs. Myrtle Dessery, Drover Bert Pettit, and Cowboy Clay Carmer and Others (275 pages) In 1852, a fourteen-year-old orphan and her elderly guardian, accompanied by a tough drover and his crew, take several thousand sheep from Iowa to California, returning by ship through the Panama Canal, to raise money to save the girl's home from a villainous debt collector.

Thomas, Joyce Carol - I Have Heard of a Land (31 pages) Describes the joys and hardships experienced by an African-American pioneer woman who staked a claim for free land in the Oklahoma territory.

Tripp, Valerie - Meet Josefina, an American Girl (85 pages) This is the first in a series of "Josefina" books about a nine-year-old girl, the youngest of four sisters living in New Mexico in 1824, who tries to help run the household after her mother dies.

Turner, Ann Warren - Grasshopper Summer (166 pages) In 1874 Sam and his family move from Kentucky to the southern Dakota Territory, where harsh conditions and a plague of hungry grasshoppers threaten their chances for survival.

Twain, Mark – Adventures of Tom Sawyer (284 pages) The classic story of the adventures and pranks of a mischievous boy growing up in a Mississippi River town in the early nineteenth century.

Wallace, Bill - Red Dog (185 pages) Living with his family in the rugged, often dangerous, Wyoming mountains in the 1860’s, Adam finds his courage put to the test when he is left in charge of the household.

Whelan, Gloria –

• Next Spring an Oriole (60 pages) In 1837, Libby and her parents journey by covered wagon to the Michigan frontier, where they make themselves a new home near friendly Indians and other pioneers.
• Once on This Island (186 pages) Twelve-year-old Mary and her older brother and sister tend the family farm on Michigan’s Mackinac Island while their father is away fighting the British in the War of 1812.

Wilde, Oscar - Canterville Ghost (unpaged) A celebrated and feared English ghost is outraged when the new American owners of his haunting place refuse to take him seriously and actually fight back against him in this classic story.

Wilder, Laura Ingalls - Little House in the Big Woods (237 pages) This is the first of the classic "Little House" series that tells the triumphs and trials of the Ingalls family as they grow up on the American frontier.

Wilkes, Maria - Little House in Brookfield (298 pages) In this first book of the "Brookfield Books" series, young Caroline Quiner, who would grow up to become Laura Ingalls Wilder’s mother, and her family survive their first year without Father in the frontier town of Brookfield, Wisconsin.

Wisler, Clifton - Jericho’s Journey (137 pages) As his family makes the long and difficult journey from Tennessee to their new home in Texas in 1852, Jericho Wetherby, teased by his sister and brothers about his size, learns there are many ways to grow.

Woodruff, Elvira - Dear Levi: Letters From the Overland Trail (119 pages) Austin Ives writes letters to his younger brother describing his three-thousand-mile journey from their home in Pennsylvania to Oregon in 1851.

Yep, Laurence - Dragon’s Gate (273 pages) When he accidentally kills a Manchu, a 15-year-old Chinese boy is sent to America to join his father, an uncle, and other Chinese working to build a tunnel for the Transcontinental Railroad through the Sierra Nevada mountains in 1867. This is the sequel to the book Mountain Light.