Wealth is certainly a most desirable thing,   but poverty has its sunny side . . .”  It’s Christmas time . . .   The March family has fallen on bad times after the father lost their money. The four March sisters—the nearly perfect ‘little woman’ Meg, the tomboyish Jo, the shy but wise Beth, and the artist of the family Amy—are planning to brighten up their Christmas by buying presents while their father is away, fighting the Civil...

The adventures continue for Laura Ingalls and her family as they leave their little house in the Big Woods of Wisconsin and set out for Kansas. They travel for many days in their covered wagon until they find the best spot to build their little house on the prairie. Soon they are planting and plowing, hunting wild ducks and turkeys, and gathering grass for their cows. Sometimes pioneer life is hard, but Laura and her folks are always busy and happy...

"Life on the Mississippi is a powerful narrative concerning the past, present, and future of the Mississippi River, including its towns, peoples, and ways of life. Before addressing the river and his personal relationship to it, Twain provides a brief history of the Mississippi River. He comments in the first few chapters on the river's historic standing as a wonder that surpasses many rivers around the world. Twain also provides a history of explorers...

The epic tale of Scarlett O'Hara, her life, loves, and ultimate tragedy. Set against the background of the ante-bellum South, this novel chronicles the story of one family's destruction by the conflict between the states.

Fifteen-year-old Laura loves her prairie home, but knows it is time for her to serious about getting a teachers certificate so she can help Ma and Pa pay for her sister Mary's education at the college for the blind.

"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.

Ma and the girls follow Pa west by train where they make their home at a rough railroad camp in the Dakota Territory and plan for their own homestead, but the influx of land-hungry people threaten their homestead claim.

Cora is a slave on a cotton plantation in Georgia. When Caesar, a recent arrival from Virginia, tells her about the Underground Railroad, they decide to take a terrifying risk and escape. Though they manage to find a station and head north, they are being hunted. Their first stop is South Carolina, in a city that initially seems like a haven. But the city's placid surface masks an insidious scheme designed for its black denizens. And even worse: Ridgeway,...

Born at the end of the 18th century, the son of a Staten Island ferryman, Cornelius Vanderbilt world go on to become the richest man in America with a fortune built in shipping and railroads. That fortune, fought over by his heirs, helped to create an American dynasty that redefined the meaning of excess in the 19th and 20th centuries. Now , Cornelius Vanderbilt's great-great-great grandson Anderson Cooper, joins with historian Katherine Howe to explore...

When fourteen-year-old Polly Milton goes to stay with her friend Fanny for the summer, she finds that the Shaw family's wealthy city life couldn't be more different from her country upbringing. With her plain clothes and more practical interests, Polly is out of place among a crowd focused on following the latest trends and presenting the right image. One of the few people who doesn't pressure her to fit in is Fanny's brother, Tom, but he's also one...