Lawlor, Laurie

In 1850, a faithful ox helps a group of travelers survive their trip through Death Valley.

Emmet, a fifteen-year-old orphan, learns hard lessons about survival when he sails from England in 1577 as a servant aboard the "Golden Hind"--the ship of his cousin, explorer and pirate Francis Drake--on its three-year circumnavigation of the world.

Addie's twelve-year-old brother, George, doesn't think anyone appreciates his musical talent, and when his father threatens to sell his trombone, George decides to run away from the family's prairie home.

Eleven-year-old Harriet "Duck" Scott, who isn't nearly as ladylike as her older sisters, finds many opportunities for adventure during an 1852 wagon train trip from Illinois to Oregon Territory, as her family deals with the loss of loved ones, quicksand, and a horse thief.

Elizabeth Poage's family make the dangerous journey to Boonesborough, Kentucky.

While her father is looking for a homestead in the Dakotas, Addie and her mother and brothers spend the summer with her aunt and uncle in Sabula, Iowa, where she rescues her best friend during a flood and where her baby sister is born.

Twelve-year-old Addie eagerly awaits her cousins' summer visit to her prairie home but, once they arrive, finds things much more complicated than she had ever imagined.