Westward Expansion

Mr. Tuckett by Gary Paulsen

Publisher:  Yearling

Publication Date:  1995
Awards & Recognitions:  

Summary:  Fourteen-year-old Francis Tucket is heading west on the Oregon Trail with his family by wagon train. When he receives a rifle for his birthday, he is thrilled that he is being treated like an adult. But Francis lags behind to practice shooting and is captured by Pawnees. It will take wild horses, hostile tribes, and a mysterious one-armed mountain man named Mr. Grimes to help Francis become the man who will be called Mr. Tucket.



Last Dance on Holladay Street by Elisa Carbone

Publisher:  Knopf

Publication Date:  2005

Awards:

Summary: The year is 1878, and 13-year-old Eva has lost all the family she’s ever known. Eva feels like an orphan—but she’s not. Sadie Lewis, the woman who gave her up at birth, is alive and well in Denver. And Eva sets out to find her, carrying only an address on a slip of paper. But Denver holds more surprises than Eva can bear. When she reaches 518 Holladay Street, she discovers Sadie Lewis’s shocking secret. But Eva knows in her bones that she’s free—and that she’s got to escape. In a novel that pulses with the sights, sounds, and wild dangers of the frontier West, Elisa Carbone explores the many faces that family, and freedom, can take.

The Journal of Wong Ming-Chung: A Chinese Miner by Laurence Yep

Publisher: Scholastic

Publication Date:  2000
Awards & Recognitions:  

Summary:   Wong Ming-Chung, or Runt as he is known by his family, lives in a China where there is much poverty and suffering. His family have very little, beaten down by poor harvests and wars. Because of this Runt’s uncle decides that he is going to seek his fortune in "the Golden Mountain" in America. There is gold to be had there, easy pickings for anyone who goes seeking it - or so they have been told. The family think that Uncle is quite mad and have very little confidence in his scheme but he goes all the same. They soon have to change their tune when money starts to arrive from Uncle. Now Runt’s family live in much more comfortable circumstances and just as he is getting used to being a respected member of his village community the family gets a letter from Uncle requesting that they send Runt’s elder brother Blessings to join him. Runt is horrified when his parents tell him that they want to send him instead. It would seem that they love him so little that they are willing to send him off into to grave danger in a far off land.

Canyons by Gary Paulsen

Publisher:  Laurel Leaf

Publication Date:  1991

Awards:

Summary: Two boys, separated by the canyons of time and two vastly different cultures, face the challenges by which they become men.  Coyote Runs, an Apache boy, takes part in his first raid--the one that will usher him into manhood. He is to be a man for but a short time...

More than a hundred years later, while camping near Dog Canyon, fifteen-year-old Brennan Cole becomes obsessed with a skull that he finds, pierced by a bullet. He learns that it was the skull of an Apache boy executed by soldiers in 1864. A mystical link joins Brennan and Coyote Runs, and Brennan knows that neither boy will find any peace until Coyote Runs' skull is returned to an ancient sacred place. In a grueling run through the canyon to return the skull, Brennan faces the challenge of his life.