Elizabeth Van Steenwyk

On the Nebraska prairie in 1880, eleven-year-old Emma finds a way to celebrate the spirit of Christmas while her mother, a midwife, delivers a baby on Christmas Eve.

Describes the 1849 California Gold Rush and life for the miners during and after the gold rush.

In 1890, the United States Census Department declared that there was no longer an American frontier. It had taken over 280 years, but the pioneers had persevered through broken bones, gunshot wounds, disease, and malnutrition. Whether using chicken guts to treat appendicitis, blood-letting to relieve fever, or firing guns into the air to stop epidemics of yellow fever, pioneers and their doctors would try anything to get their health back. See how...

"The son of a blacksmith and slave learns that his father is using the rhythm of his hammering to communicate with travelers on the Underground Railroad"--

Did you know that women once wore corsets under their bathing suits? Or that "semi-drowning"-the strip and plunge practice-was thought to be good for one's health? Or that Pudgy Stockton, the body-building queen of Muscle Beach, California, opened the country's first gym for women? From the bathhouses of the ancient Greeks to Venice Beach and Coney Island, Let's Go to the Beach takes a multifaceted and well researched look at beaches and their attendant...

Sam can't accept the trauma of what happened eight years ago: the disappearance and apparent death of his dad in the Arctic wilderness. Devoted to his father's memory, he despises his well-meaning, if awkward, stepdad and resents his mother for marrying this intruder. Sam's heart cry for companionship and understanding is finally answered by the appearance of a beautiful wild dog he names Kayla, after his dad's sled dog. Sam bonds with Kayla, whose...