When twelve-year-old Eric's parents are deployed to Iraq, he goes to live with grandparents he hardly knows in a small town in North Dakota, but his grandfather's hostility and the threat of losing the dog he has rescued are too much, and Eric runs away.

In the early 1900s, after his family joins other Amish families on the Colorado frontier, young Joe, dreaming of an easier life, tries his hand at gold panning and learns some of life's truly golden lessons from an old prospector.

Now living in Bismarck, North Dakota, Damon Richards, with his friends Kamryn and Jason, find themselves in an unwanted but unavoidable fight against fire-breathing night dragons.

"The town of De Smet is hit with terrible, howling blizzards and Laura and her family must ration their food and coal. When the supply train doesn't arrive, Almanzo Wilder and his brother realize something must be done. They begin an impossible journey in search of provisions, before it's too late"--P. [4] of cover.