Wendy McClure

In this funny and thoughtful guide to a romanticized version of the American expansion west, children's book editor and memoirist McClure (I'm Not the New Me) attempts to recapture her childhood vision of "Laura World" (i.e., the world of Laura Ingalls Wilder and her Little House books about an 1880s pioneer family).

"After a bird flies into their window, two children and their mother study how to keep birds safe, and soon their whole neighborhood is helping in different ways." --

To escape rumored terrors in Kansas, New Yorkers Jack and Frances, eleven, and Frances's brother Harold, seven, jump off an orphan train in 1899 and help new friend Alexander to build Wanderville, a safe place for homeless children.

"The orphans of Wanderville have decided never again to let themselves be misled by adults offering them shiny red apples and warm beds. They're going to make their way to California and establish a more permanent spot for Wanderville, one where the Society for Children's Aid and Relief (otherwise known as S-C-A-R) will never find them. But when the orphans are suddenly left without transportation, they must locate a new means of getting to their...