In 1878, the three Muldie brother-ages eleven, eight, and three-and their father travel from Kentucky to Nicodemus, Kansas. Living in a dugout like other black pioneer families, they endure hunger and hardships before spring comes. Ed Muldie leaves the boys to take care of each other while he looks for a better homestead further west. They hunt, fish, and stay in the dugout until their father's letter arrives months later with a rough map. Following...

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

Remembering her mother's words, an eight-year-old girl finds courage to go alone with her father to build a new home in the Connecticut wilderness and to stay with the Indians when her father goes back to bring the rest of the family.

A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains (1879) is a work of travel literature by British explorer Isabella Bird. Adventurous from a young age, Bird gained a reputation as a writer and photographer interested in nature and the stories and cultures of people around the world. A bestselling author and the first woman inducted into the Royal Geographical Society, Bird is recognized today as a pioneering woman whose contributions to travel writing, exploration,...

"1838: James and Sadie Goodenough have settled where their wagon got stuck - in the muddy, stagnant swamps of northwest Ohio. They and their five children work relentlessly to tame their patch of land, buying saplings from a local tree man known as John Appleseed so they can cultivate the fifty apple trees required to stake their claim on the property. But the orchard they plant sows the seeds of a long battle. James loves the apples, reminders of...

After an October blizzard, Laura's family moves from the claim shanty into town for the winter, a winter that an Indian has predicted will be seven months of bad weather.

Zane Grey's debut novel, which he self-published in 1905, "Betty Zane" is the first book in Grey's "Frontier Trilogy" and tells the true biographical story of Elizabeth "Betty" Zane, a hero of the American Revolutionary War and direct ancestor of the author. While under siege at Fort Henry by American Indian allies of the British Army and faced with dwindling supplies, the lovely and sixteen-year-old Betty bravely volunteers to venture out of the...

Left alone to guard the family's wilderness home in eighteenth-century Maine, a boy is hard-pressed to survive until local Indians teach him their skills.

After breaking his leg, eleven-year-old Nate feels useless because he cannot work on the family farm in nineteenth-century Nebraska, so when his father brings home an orphan boy to help with the chores, Nate feels even worse.

In two western stories, a reluctant gunfighter and a former buffalo hider must stand alone against lawless men to make their chosen towns safe.