Click the info icon (i) to read a summary of the book. Click on the link to go to Destiny Discover to see if the book is available.
The Birchbark House
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Omakakiins and her family live on an island in Lake Superior. Though there are growing numbers of white people encroaching on their land, life continues much as it always has. But the satisfying rhythms of their life are shattered when a visitor comes to their lodge one winter night, bringing with him an invisible enemy that will change things forever--but that will eventually lead Omakakiins to discover her calling.
Prairie Lotus
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Prairie Lotus is a powerful, touching, multilayered novel about a girl determined to fit in and realize her dreams: getting an education, becoming a dressmaker in her father's shop, and making at least one friend.
Horse Diaries #16: Penny
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CALIFORNIA, 1850. Penny is a blue-eyed palomino paint mare with a taste for adventure! She and a boy named Jesse search for gold in the hills of Northern California. After striking it rich and then losing everything, Jesse and Penny join the Pony Express. The job is a tough one, but Penny loves a challenge!
Westward to Home
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It is 1848 when Joshua McCullough and his family leave their home in St. Joseph, Missouri, and set off for Oregon on a wagon train.
The Journal of Wong Ming-Chun
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A young Chinese boy nicknamed Runt records his experiences in a journal as he travels from southern China to California in 1852 to join his uncle during the Gold Rush.
The Journal of Augustus Pelletier
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In this novel, Augustus Pelletier, a 14-year-old half-French and half-Omaha Indian, joins Lewis and Clark on their journey from Missouri to the Pacific Ocean and keeps a journal of throughout the trip.
Seeds of Hope
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A diary account of fourteen-year-old Susanna Fairchild's life in 1849, when her father succumbs to gold fever on the way to establish his medical practice in Oregon after losing his wife and money on their steamship journey from New York. Includes a historical note.
West to a Land of Plenty
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"West to a Land of Plenty" follows an Italian girl's immigrant family as they move from New York City to a utopian community in the frontier West.
Across the Wide and Lonesome Prairie
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In her diary, thirteen-year-old Hattie chronicles her familys arduous 1847 journey from Missouri to Oregon on the Oregon Trail.
These are just a few of the nonfiction books we have about Westward Expansion. Click the info icon (i) for a summary. Click the title to go to Destiny Discover to see if the book is available.
What Was the Gold Rush?
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In 1848, gold was discovered in California, attracting over 300,000 people from all over the world, some who struck it rich and many more who didn't. Hear the stories about the gold-seeking "forty-niners!"
Science on the Oregon Trail
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You may have heard of the Oregon Trail. In the 1840s, more than 5,000 people traveled the Oregon Trail, hoping for a better life. But did you know that science played a big role in this epic journey? Learn how covered wagons were engineered. Find out how food was preserved and diseases were treated along the trail. And discover how modern technology is helping us learn even more about this time in history.
Buffalo Bird Girl
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This fascinating picture book biography tells the childhood story of Buffalo Bird Woman, a Hidatsa Indian born around 1839. Through her true story, readers will learn what it was like to be part of this Native American community that lived along the Missouri River in the Dakotas, a society that depended more on agriculture for food and survival than on hunting.
Locomotive
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It is the summer of 1869, and trains, crews, and family are traveling together, riding America's brand-new transcontinental railroad. These pages come alive with the details of the trip and the sounds, speed, and strength of the mighty locomotives; the work that keeps them moving; and the thrill of travel from plains to mountain to ocean.
Learn about Westward Expansion with a graphic novel! Click the info icon (i) for a summary. Click the title to go to Destiny Discover to see if the book is available.
The Tragic Trip of the Donner Party
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In the spring of 1846, the Donner and Reed families joined a wagon train bound for California in hopes of a better life. But when the party took an untested shortcut, it set them down a tragic path. As they crossed the Sierra Nevada, heavy snow fell in the mountain pass. They were trapped. Supplies were already low, and now they faced a winter of starvation. Told through the gripping, full-color graphic novel format, this Deadly Expeditions tale transports readers back in time to follow the Donner Party's disastrous trek west and their struggle to survive.
Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales
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In the spring of 1846, a group of families left Illinois and began the long journey toward a new life in California. To save time, they took an ill-advised shortcut--with disastrous consequences. Their story would not take them to California but into history. Bad weather, bad choices, and just plain bad luck forced the pioneers to spend a long, cold winter in the mountains, slowly starving. What they did to stay alive and the lengths that others went to in order to rescue them make this one of the most tragic and infamous stories of the American frontier.
What Made California the Golden State?: Life During the Gold Rush
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Explore the Gold Rush from the perspectives of William Miller and Henry Garrison, two miners in the Sierra Nevada region, and uncover the often unrelenting conditions of the California gold mines. A story of community, determination, and the search for the American Dream, this graphic novel invites readers to immerse themselves into what life was really like during this pivotal period in American history-brought to life by gripping narrative and vivid full-color illustrations that jump off the page.