In 1925, fourteen-year-old Ida Bidson secretly takes over as the teacher when the one-room schoolhouse in her remote Colorado area closes unexpectedly.

"It's 1951, and twelve-year-old Pete Collison is a regular kid in Brooklyn, New York, who loves Sam Spade detective books and radio crime dramas. But when an FBI agent shows up at Pete's doorstep, accusing Pete's father of being a Communist, Pete is caught in a real-life mystery. Could there really be Commies in Pete's family?"--

The eighth grade's plan to get two reluctant "lovers" together by means of a classroom production of Shakespeare's play has some very unexpected results.

Sixteen-year-old John Proud is tormented by the ghost of an evil ancestor, with his own name and his own face, who was hanged in 1854 for being a demon.

Newbery Medalist Avi carves an imaginative story full of suspense and surprises. For the animals of Central Park, life turns upside down when Big Daddy Duds and his gang of rats move uptown and take over the park. The mayor of Central Park, a squirrel named Oscar Westerwit, is determined to give the park back to its rightful owners-the squirrels, rabbits, and moles. Mark Nilson's lively narration brings to life the critters of Central Park in 1900....

An outcast eight-year-old boy, orphaned by the Civil War, is taken in by the owner of a traveling medicine show and, despite the doubts of others, years later he confirms the man's faith in him.

When his father is killed fighting for the Union in the War Between the States, thirteen-year-old Tom Carroll must take a job to support his family. He finds work at a bustling ironworks in his hometown of Brooklyn, New York, where dozens of men are frantically pounding together the strangest ship Tom has ever seen.

A hoot owl, Ocax, rules Dimwood Forest and promises to protect the mice as long as they ask his permission to move about. Poppy is a deer mouse under the owl's protection, but when her fiance is killed by Ocax she defies the owl and begins a journey to a new place. Poppy wants to find a place where her family can live away from Ocax, but she has to do it without Ocax catching her.