Susan McAliley

While looking for Steps High, the horse that had been stolen from her, Kaya faces danger from a sudden mountain fire. Includes historical notes on the Nez Percé Indians.

While Rebecca Rubin helps her building's ailing superintendent take care of his homing pigeons, she puzzles over what to do with the Christmas centerpiece her teacher insisted she make but which has no place in her Jewish home.

In 1934, during the Depression, Kit's cantankerous uncle comes to live in the Cincinnati boardinghouse run by her parents, enlisting her aid in transcribing his complaining letters to the editor of the local newspaper and inspiring her to write a different kind of letter of her own.

When Kaya and her family join with other Nez Percé and Salish Indians to fish for the red salmon, she and her older sister hope to be reunited with their younger sister, who had been kidnapped some time before. Includes historical notes on the summer activities of the Nez Percé Indians.

Still grieving over the death of her hero, and missing her stolen horse and kidnapped younger sister, Kaya tries to earn the trust of a lone and starving dog who is about to have puppies. Includes historical notes on Nez Percé children.

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

It's 1976 and the entire country is celebrating America's 200th birthday. Julie joins her cousins on a pioneer-style wagon train in honor of the Bicentennial. The journey is filled with adventures, challenges, and self-discovery as Julie faces her fears to make an important contribution to her country's birthday. The "Looking Back" section provides additional information about Bicentennial celebrations in the United States.--From publisher's description....

Josefina and her sisters distrust learning to read and write, as well as other changes their Tía Dolores is bringing to the household, because they fear they will lose their memories of their mother.

Nine-year-old Rebecca Rubin eagerly helps her cousin Ana, newly arrived from Russia, to adjust to life in New York City, but when their teacher says the two must sing together at a school assembly, Rebecca worries that her big moment will be ruined.

In 1974, after Julie's parents divorce, she moves to a new San Francisco neighborhood where the school does not have a girls' basketball team, so she fights for the right to play on the boys' team.