In 1825 when Josefina trusts a trader in Santa Fe with an important deal, she makes a surprising discovery about this young American who leaves town without paying her.

A collection of five short stories featuring nine-year-old Felicity Merriman growing up in Virginia in 1774 as she plays a joke on herself while teaching her sister to dance, responds to a foolish dare, proves her worth as a big sister, plays Cupid, and discovers the secret of the crabbiest lady in town. Each story includes a non-fiction essay about the culture and customs of the time.

Josefina Montoya and her sisters love the comfortable traditions of life on her family's New Mexican rancho, but they are suspicious of the changes their Ti?a Dolores is bringing to the household because they fear they will lose their memories of their mother. Five short stories featuring Josefina are followed by brief accounts of what life was actually like in the southwest in the 1800s.

Relates the adventures of Samantha Parkington, a young orphan who is raised by her wealthy grandmother in New York City in the early years of the twentieth century and whose antics confound her grandmother, who wants Samantha to behave as a "young lady." Five short stories featuring Samantha are followed by brief accounts of what life was actually like in early twentieth century New York.

"When Felicity overhears a plot against the colonists, no one believes her but Ben, her father's apprentice. So the two risk great danger to warn the colonists themselves. Soon afterward, Felicity finds a secret note from Ben. He has run away to join George Washington's army, and he is injured. Felicity is worried about him but knows it would be wrong to help a runaway apprentice. Then she is turned away from the door of her best friend, Elizabeth....

Josefina discovers that she has a gift for healing when she tends an orphaned baby goat, finds the courage and creativity to mend her family's broken trust in an americano trader, and seeks to keep her family whole and happy when Taia Dolores plans to leave.

Josefina hopes to become a "curandera" or healer like Tia Magdalena, and she is tested just before her tenth birthday when a friend receives a potentially fatal snakebite.

In 1824 New Mexico, Josefina and her sisters argue as they weave, until Josefina thinks of a way to make their work more fun. Includes historical notes on blanket weaving in New Mexico in 1824 and instructions for dyeing a t-shirt.

When the entire family goes into the hills to collect pinon nuts, Josefina hopes to find the most in order to make Tia Dolores proud of her.