Out of the Dust  by Karen Hesse

Through a series of poems, 14-year-old Billie Jo relates the hardships of life in Depression-era Oklahoma.When Billie Jo's father leaves a bucket of kerosene by the stove, their house and the young girl's dreams go up in flames. The fire kills Billie Jo's mother, leaving Billie Jo and her father to battle with feelings of guilt and loss. Billie Jo, her hands burned to useless "swollen lumps" by the fire, must abandon her dream of becoming a pianist and find happiness elsewhere.

Caddie Woodlawn By Carol Ryrie Brink. This beloved story follows the frontier adventures of Caddie Woodlawn, a tomboy growing up in Wisconsin during the 1860s. More likely to plow than bake, she's the despair of her mother and older sister. But when Indians threaten to massacre the settlers, it's Caddie who saves the day.

From the Publisher: Caddie Woodlawn, which has been captivating young readers since 1935, was awarded the John Newbery Medal for the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children.

Also by Carol Ryrie Brink The Pink Motel
Kirby, Bitsy, and their parents inherit an unusual and very pink motel in Florida, they find it filled with eccentric characters, mystery, and adventure.

The girl detective who never goes out of style...

Nancy Drew by Carolyn Keene

Introduce a new generation of readers to the classic Nancy Drew stories! Beginning with Book #1: The Secret of the Old Clock and ending with Book #64: Captive Witness, all of the timeless hardcovers in this collection created the mystery-solving legend that readers have come to love.

The Yearling

by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, N. C. Wyeth (Illustrator)

New copies of this edition illustrated by N.C. Wyeth are hard to find- so get a used one. The watercolors are stunning.

In the case of this story, I might say the movie with Gregory Peck was a work of art, but please read Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, regardless!

A young boy living in the Florida wilderness is forced to decide the fate of a fawn he has lovingly raised as a pet. In this classic story of the Baxter family of inland Florida and their wild, hard, satisfying life, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings has written one of the great novels of our times. A rich and varied story- tender in its understanding of boyhood, crowded with the excitement of the backwoods hunt, with vivid descriptions of the primitive, beautiful hammock country, with humor and earthy philosophy. The Yearling is a novel for readers of all tastes and ages. Its glowing picture of life that is far and refreshingly removed from modern patterns of living becomes universal in its revelation of simple courageous people and the abiding beliefs they live by. Special edition illustrated by the distinguished N.C. Wyeth. The original paintings have been re-photographed and new plates made for this handsome volume.

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

by Mark Twain, Steven Kellogg (Illustrator), Peter Glassman (Afterword)

"One can read it at ten and then annually ever after, and each year find that it is as fresh as the year before..."-- Features the original manuscript that represented the first half of the literary classic, offers insight into Twain's creative process, and includes several controversial passages. Reprint. NYT.

Hilariously picaresque, epic in scope, alive with the poetry and vigor of the American people, Mark Twain's story about a young boy and his journey down the Mississippi was the first great novel to speak in a truly American voice. Influencing subsequent generations of writers -- from Sherwood Anderson to Twain's fellow Missourian, T.S. Eliot, from Ernest Hemingway and William Faulkner to J.D. Salinger -- , like the river which flows through its pages, is one of the great sources which nourished and still nourishes the literature of America.

Amos Fortune Free Man by Elizabeth Yates, Nora S. Unwin (Illustrator)

Amos Fortune was born the son of an African king. In 1725, when he was 15 years old, he was captured by slave traders, brought to America and sold at auction. For 45 years, Amos worked as a slave and dreamed of freedom. At 60, he began to see those dreams come true.

A Newbery Honor Book.

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle

Please read this story for yourself! By comparison, the movie was a sappy abomination!

It was a wild, stormy night when the unearthly visitor arrived to change the lives of Meg, her small brother, Charles, and their scientist mother. "Has the general appearance of being science fiction, but it is not. There is mystery, mysticism, a feeling of indefinable brooding horror . . . original, different, exciting."Science-fiction, feminism, and faith; a ground-breaking and unbeatable combination; one of the most original children's books of this century.

Henry Huggins by Beverly Cleary

Henry and his impossibly dirty mutt Ribsy live in Small Town, USA, in this old-fashioned and funny book -

Henry has been wishing for some excitement in his lfie. He never thought it would come in the form of a lost, hungry dog with big brown eyes begging for a taste of his ice cream cone. After sharing his ice cream, the dog followed Henry--and that's just the beginning of Henry's exciting new life. Reprint.

The Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder, Garth Williams (Illustrator)

This rich, handsomely designed case holds nine favorite classics about the Ingalls family and their life on the prairie. Wilder's vivid re-creations of pioneer life are classics of children's literature. From the "Big Woods" to the prairie, she gives detailed accounts of her family's struggles to survive on the changing frontier, providing generations of young readers a personal vision of American life in the 19th century. 9 volume Boxed set. The set includes: Little House in the Big Woods, Little House on the Prairie, Farmer Boy, On the Banks of Plum Creek, By the Shores of Silver Lake, The Long Winter, Little Town on the Prairie, These Happy Golden Years, and The First Four Years.