Josefina hopes to become a "curandera" or healer like Tía Magdalena, and she is tested just before her tenth birthday when a friend receives a potentially fatal snakebite.

"Growing up in the 1950s, nine-year-old Maryellen longs to stand out, but in a family with five brothers and sisters, it's easy to get lost in the shuffle!"--

In Williamsburg in 1774, nine-year-old Felicity rescues a beautiful horse who is being beaten and starved by her cruel owner.

When Tâia Dolores, the beloved aunt who has cared for the Montoya family since the death of their mother, announces that she is planning to leave, Josefina and her sisters try to find a way to change her mind.

Christmas in Williamsburg means a dancing party at the Governor's Palace for Felicity, but her mother becomes very ill and cannot finish the special blue gown.

All winter Felicity has waited to go to the Williamsburg town fair, but her foolhardy actions in trying to feed the race horses spoil the fun and teach her a lesson.

American Girl Nellie O'Malley and her two sisters finally have a home with Samantha, but Uncle Mike is determined to find them and take them away.

Things have changed for Samantha. She leaves quiet Mount Bedford for the bustle of New York City and the company of Aunt Cornelia's ten-year-old twin sisters, Agnes and Agatha. This pair is good at getting into mischief, and at bringing Samantha with them. When the three of them visit Grandmary's summer home, their adventure leads to danger on Goose Lake -- the same lake where Samantha's parents drowned! Then word comes that Samantha's neighbor Nellie...

Elizabeth and her friend Felicity find it funny to play tricks on Elizabeth's older sister.

Five short stories starring the Mexican American girl Josefina are followed by brief actual accounts of what life was like in the southwest in the 1800s.