Turn Homeward, Hannalee

Author: Patricia Beatty

Illustrator: (cover) Mary Grendore

Date: 1984

Publisher: William Morrow & Co.

Upper Elementary

After being taken from their home, Hannalee and her brother endure much pain and suffering during their trip away from their home and finally back there again. The story takes the reader through the time of the civil war, when mills were forced to close and towns were overtaken by the opposing side. Hannalee and Jim get split up eventually and show their love for one another as well as their mother to risk their lives getting back home.

Sign of the Beaver

Author: Elizabeth George Speare

Date: 1984

Publisher: Yearling

Upper Elementary

This book teaches wonderful lessons of tolerance and of acceptance of others. When the native americans take care of Matt when his father returns for the rest of the family, he learns to trust others and to depend on their ways of life. His family returns to the home he and his father built to start a new life, but the life he knows there has become very different. This is a great story of friendship and committment to family. The book was made into a movie.

Johnny Tremain

Author: Esther Forbes

Date: 1969

Publisher: Laurel Leaf

Upper Elementary

Johnny Tremain is an apprentice at a silvershop after his mother's death. The talents of Johnny's give him pride which "comes before a fall" according to Mr. Lapham. It is true...Johnny does fall, but begins a new life and sets out to find who his family really is. This is a great historical fiction that is set in the time of the American Revolution. We grow to love Johnny and he makes the colonists proud.