Publication Date: 2003
Awards: Michael L. Printz Honor Book
Summary: Sixteen-year-old Mattie Gokey has big dreams but little hope of seeing them come true. Desperate for money, she takes a job at the Glenmore, where hotel guest Grace Brown asks her to burn a bundle of secret letters. But when Grace's drowned body is fished from the lake, Mattie discovers the letters reveal the grim truth behind a murder.
Set in 1906 against a backdrop of the murder this astonishing novel weaves romance, history, and a murder mystery into something moving, real, and wholly original.
Worth by A. LaFaye
Summary: In 1870s small town Nebraska, nothing is easy for young Nathaniel Peale. His leg is crushed in a farming accident, so he can no longer help his father on the farm. Afraid he'll lose their homestead, Mr. Peale adopts a young boy named John Worth through the Orphan train system. Nataniel feels replaced by this young boy and frustrated because he lost the closeness he had with his father. He also struggles to keep up with kids half his age when he attends school for the first time. John Worth doesn't have it any easier. His family died in a fire in New York City and now he's on a farm in Nebraska with no idea what to do. The boys struggle to find their place in their new family situations. Their struggle comes to a head when talk of a range war starts and they spot the person who's out to heat things up by cutting fences.
The River Between Us by Richard Peck
Summary: During the summer of 1916, teenager Howard Hutchings travels 55 years back in time to the beginning of the Civil War. Anticipating travel restrictions when America enters the war in Europe, his father takes Howard for a visit to the "homeplace," at Grand Tower, Illinois, on the Mississippi River. Here Howard meets for the first time his paternal great-uncle Noah, great-aunt Delphine, and grandparents, Tilly and William. At this point in the book, his grandmother takes over the narration and tells the family's history, starting with events that occurred in 1861, when she was 15. Two young women, Delphine and Calinda, arrive by riverboat from New Orleans, board with Tilly's family, and spark speculation in the small town about their racial identity. After Tilly's brother Noah runs away to join the Union army, her mother sends Tilly and Delphine to find him at Cairo. Their difficult journey ends in a horrific military hospital where they find and help the wounded Noah along with other injured soldiers, befriend an Army doctor, and eventually return to Grand Tower. Besides showing how the relationships between these characters last over time, the author works in historical details about Civil War battles, personal reactions to the conflict, racism, New Orleans culture, and ways in which America was changing during the mid-19th century. The book ends with Howard discovering a secret about his heritage and Howard's father going off to serve as a doctor in World War I.
Set in 1906 against a backdrop of the murder this astonishing novel weaves romance, history, and a murder mystery into something moving, real, and wholly original.
Worth by A. LaFayePublisher: Simon & Schuster
Publication Date: 2004
Awards: Scott O'Dell Historical Fiction Award,Top Ten Historical Fiction Titles for Youth 2005
The River Between Us by Richard PeckPublisher: Dial Books
Publication Date: 2003
Awards: Scott O'Dell Historical Fiction Award, Top Ten Historical Fiction Titles for Youth 2004, ALA's Best Lists: 2004
