Chronicles the adventures of eleven-year-old tomboy Caddie growing up with her six brothers and sisters on the Wisconsin frontier in the mid-nineteenth century. At age 11, Caddie Woodlawn is the despair of her mother and the pride of her father: a clock-fixing tomboy running wild in the woods of Wisconsin. In 1864, this is a bit much for her Boston-bred mother to bear, but Caddie and her brothers are happy with the status quo. Written in 1935 about...

In the early 1900s, as the oppression of Russia's imperial rule takes its toll on Finland, the three Koski siblings--Ilmari, Matti, and the politicized young Aino--are forced to flee to the United States. Not far from the majestic Columbia River, the siblings settle among other Finns in a logging community in southern Washington, where the first harvesting of the colossal old-growth forests begets rapid development, and radical labor movements begin...

In the mid-19th century, savvy London street urchin Gemmy Fairly becomes a cabin boy, only to be shipwrecked soon after off the coast of Australia. Taken in by the area's indigenous inhabitants, Gemmy spends the next 16 years living among them, until a fateful encounter with the McIvor family brings him back into contact with European society. Because of Gemmy's experiences, the other settlers shun him for not being "white" enough, yet he's not aboriginal...

Learn about the real man behind the legend.

In the year 1910, New Englander Sarah Wheaton answers an ad for a mail-order bride placed by Kansas farmer Jacob Witting, a widower rearing two children. She begins a 30 day trial period as their guest and enthusiastically assumes all motherly responsibilities. As the days pass, this lonely, motherless family gradually opens their hearts to Sarah and slowly comes to terms with their painful past. Their lives again become spontaneous and magical. Love...

First published in 1923, A Lost Lady is one of Willa Cather's classic novels about life on the Great Plains. It harkens back to Nebraska's early history and contrasts those days with an unsentimental portrait of the materialistic world that supplanted the frontier. In her subtle portrait of Marian Forrester, whose life unfolds in the midst of this disquieting transition, Cather created one of her most memorable and finely drawn characters. The Willa...

Laura has her first experiences as a teacher, and is courted by Almanzo Wilder.