And, last but not least... The rest of the list and Mary's information.
THE U.S.A. IN FICTION for K – 8th Grade
Compiled by Mary Norton / mnorton@btsb.com
Bound To Stay Bound Books, Inc. / www.btsb.com
1-800-637-6586 ext. 3534
VERMONT
_____ 055155 Alvarez, Julia HOW TIA LOLA CAME TO VISIT STAY $16.27 Pub. Yr: 2001
Age Range 8 – 10 AR RL: 4.80 Ten-year-old Miguel learns to love his colorful aunt,
Tia Lola, when she comes to Vermont from the Dominican Republic to stay with his
mother, his sister, and him after his parents’ divorce.
_____ 338650 Fisher, Dorothy Canfield UNDERSTOOD BETSY $17.67 Pub. Yr: 1999 Age
Range: 9 – 12 AR RL: 5.90 Timid and small, Elizabeth Ann gains a new perception of
the world when she goes to live with relatives in Vermont.
_____ 371140 Gauthier, Gail HERO OF TICONDEROGA $16.99 Pub. Yr: 2001 Age Range:
10 – 16 AR RL: 5.50 When Therese is chosen to do the coveted oral report on Ethan
Allen, she learns a great deal about the Vermont hero and also discovers what
pleasure she gets from writing and presenting the report.
_____ 390588 Graff, Nancy Price LONG WAY HOME $15.60 Pub. Yr: 2001 Age Range: 10
– 14 AR RL: 5.60 After moving to his mother’s small hometown in Vermont,
twelve-year-old Riley must reconsider his feelings about war and heroes when he
meets a man who refused to fight in Vietnam and makes a discovery about one of his
own relatives.
_____ 441525 Hesse, Karen WITNESS $16.97 Pub. Yr: 2001 Age Range: 9 – 12 AR RL:
5.00 A series of poems express the views of various people in a small Vermont
town, including a young black girl and a young Jewish girl, during the early 1920s
when the Ku Klux Klan is trying to infiltrate the town.
_____ 474533 Hurwitz, Johanna LLAMA IN THE FAMILY $16.30 Pub. Yr: 1994 Age
Range: 8 – 12 AR RL: 4.60 Because Adam hopes that the “big surprise” awaiting him
at home has two wheels and pedals, he is unprepared for the unusual addition to his
Vermont family.
_____ 519800 Kinsey-Warnock, Natalie CANADA GEESE QUILT $16.29 Pub. Yr: 1989 Age
Range: 8 – 12 AR RL: 4.10 Worried that the coming of a new baby and her
grandmother’s serious illness will change the familiar life on her family’s Vermont
farm, ten-year-old Ariel makes a very special quilt.
_____ 519802 Kinsey-Warnock, Natalie DOCTOR LIKE PAPA $15.57 Pub. Yr: 2002 Age
Range: 7 – 10 AR RL: 4.20 When the influenza epidemic of 1918 comes to Vermont,
eleven-year-old Margaret, who has always wanted to be a physician, finds out what
doctoring is like.
_____ 519809 Kinsey-Warnock, Natalie FROM DAWN TILL DUSK $16.30 Pub. Yr: 2002
Age Range: 5 – 9 AR RL: 4.60 Reminiscences about the experiences a girl shared
with her family throughout the various seasons on their Vermont farm.
_____ 580285 Littlefield, Bill CIRCUS IN THE WOODS $15.60 Pub. Yr: 2001 Age
Range: 10 – 16 AR RL: 5.50 Molly, her parents, and her sister spend most summer
vacations at a camp in the Vermont mountains, and as the years pass, Molly is led
to find a mysterious circus within the woods nearby.
_____ 596715 Maguire, Gregory THREE ROTTEN EGGS $16.30 Pub. Yr: 2002 Age Range:
8 – 12 AR RL: 4.80 The students of Miss Earth’s class in rural Vermont become
involved with a bullying new student, a competitive egg hunt, and genetically
altered chicks.
_____ 703441 Paterson, Katherine PREACHER’S BOY $15.60 Pub. Yr: 1999 Age Range:
10 – 14 AR RL: 5.20 In 1899, ten-year-old Robbie, son of a preacher in a small
Vermont town, gets himself into all kinds of trouble when he decides to give up
being Christian in order to make the most of his life before the end of the world.
_____ 707365 Peck, Robert Newton DAY NO PIGS WOULD DIE $22.60 Pub. Yr: 1982 Age
Range: 12 – 16 AR RL: 4.40 To a thirteen-year-old Vermont farm boy whose father
slaughters pigs for a living, maturity comes early as he learns “doing what’s got
to be done,” especially regarding his pet pig who cannot produce a litter.
_____ 767195 Rossiter, Nan Parson SUGAR ON SNOW $16.29 Pub. Yr: 2002 Age Range:
5 – 9 AR RL: 3.70 A modern-day family in Vermont collects sap to make maple syrup.
_____ 852843 Stevenson, Laura Caroline HAPPILY AFTER ALL $16.30 Pub. Yr: 1990
Age Range: 8 – 12 AR RL: 4.10 When her father dies, ten-year-old Rebecca is sent
to live with the mother she’s been brought up to believe had abandoned her.
_____ 921039 Warner, Gertrude Chandler MYSTERY AT SNOWFLAKE INN $14.87 Pub. Yr:
1995 Age Range: 7 –12 AR RL: 3.90 The Boxcar children become curious about
mysterious “accidents” at a Vermont Inn.
_____ 954635 Wilson, Nancy Hope MOUNTAIN POSE $17.00 Pub. Yr: 2001 Age Range: 12
– 16 AR RL: 4.40 When twelve-year-old Ellie inherits an old Vermont farm from her
cruel and heartless Grandmother, Aurelia, she reads a set of diaries written by an
ancestor and discovers secrets from the past.
VIRGINIA
_____ 143075 Bradby, Marie SOME FRIEND $16.27 Pub. Yr: 2004 Age Range: 9 – 12 AR
RL: 4.00 In 1963, Pearl, an eleven-year-old black girl in Fairfax, Virginia,
learns about true friendship from the popular but untrustworthy Lenore, and
Artemesia, a poor girl who moves into the neighborhood for a brief time.
_____ 178960 Butler, Amy VIRGINIA BOUND $15.60 Pub. Yr: 2003 Age Range: 9 – 13
AR RL: 4.40 Thirteen-year-old orphaned beggar Rob Brackett is kidnapped from the
streets of London and taken to the New World for a cruel tobacco farm master, who
also owns a Pamunkey Indian girl named Mattoume.
_____ 254666 Dahlberg, Maurine F. SPIRIT AND GILLY BUCKET $17.70 Pub. Yr: 2002
Age Range: 8 – 12 AR RL: 4.70 In 1859, eleven-year-old Gilly is sent to stay with
her aunt and uncle in Virginia where she befriends one of her uncle’s slave girls
and finds out about the Underground Railroad.
_____ 273376 Denenberg, Barry WHEN WILL THIS CRUEL WAR BE OVER?: THE CIVIL WAR
DIARY OF EMMA SIMPSON $12.77 Pub. Yr: 1996 Age Range: 9 – 14 AR RL: 6.60 The
diary of a fictional fourteen-year-old girl, describes the hardships endured by her
family and friends during one year of the Civil War.
_____ 343747 Flournoy, Valerie TANYA’S REUNION $16.99 Pub. Yr: 1995 Age Range: 4
– 8 AR RL: 4.10 When she and her grandmother go to a big family reunion, Tanya
learns about the history of the farm in Virginia where Grandma grew up.
_____ 440440 Hermes, Patricia OUR STRANGE NEW LAND: ELIZABETH’S DIARY $11.37
Pub. Yr: 2000 Age Range: 7 – 10 AR RL: 3.20 Nine-year-old Elizabeth keeps a
journal of her experiences in the New World as she encounters Indians, suffers
hunger and the death of friends, and helps her father build their first home.
_____ 440448 Hermes, Patricia SEASON OF PROMISE: ELIZABETH’S JAMESTOWN COLONY
DIARY $12.77 Pub. Yr: 2002 Age Range: 7 –10 AR RL: 3.60 In 1610, Elizabeth
continues her journal as her brother, Caleb, rejoins the family, a new governor
comes to the colony, and her father considers remarriage.
_____ 440455 Hermes, Patricia STARVING TIME: ELIZABETH’S DIARY $12.77 Pub. Yr:
2001 Age Range: 7 – 10 AR RL: 3.20 Elizabeth Barker continues to write to her
“friend,” her diary, as disease and lack of food further plague the suffering
settlers at Jamestown.
_____ 447540 Hite, Sid HOLE IN THE WORLD $16.97 Pub. Yr: 2001 Age Range: 10 – 14
AR RL: 6.00 Paul Shackleford experiences an eye-opening and transformative summer
living and working on the central Virginia farm, where everyone seems to be haunted
by the death of a much-loved and admired farmhand the year before.
_____ 623642 McDonald, Megan SHADOWS IN THE GLASSHOUSE $9.73 Pub. Yr: 2000 Age
Range: 10 – 16 AR RL: 5.30 While working as an indentured servant for a Jamestown
glassmaker, Merry uncovers a case of sabotage.
_____ 719024 Pinkney, Andrea Davis SILENT THUNDER: A CIVIL WAR STORY $9.45 Pub.
Yr: 1999 Age Range: 9 – 12 AR RL: 5.40 In 1862, eleven-year-old Summer and her
brother take turns describing how life on the Virginia plantation where they are
slaves is affected by the Civil War.
_____ 740765 Ray, Delia GHOST GIRL: A BLUE RIDGE MOUNTAIN STORY $15.60 Pub. Yr:
2003 Age Range: 10 – 14 AR RL: 5.40 Eleven-year-old April’s family problems may
mean that she can never learn to read from the wonderful new teacher, Miss Vest.
_____ 763088 Roop, Peter EYE FOR AN EYE: A STORY OF THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR $9.53
Pub. Yr: 2004 Age Range: 10 –14 AR RL: 4.30 In 1775, Samantha wonders if she would
ever raise her musket against a person as the Revolutionary War begins.
_____ 783339 Scheer, Julian THANKSGIVING TURKEY $16.97 Pub. Yr: 2001 Age Range:
4 – 8 AR RL: 4.40 A boy and his mother move to a farm in rural Virginia, where he
and his grandfather try to hunt a wild turkey.
_____ 890782 Tripp, Valerie FELICITY LEARNS A LESSON: A SCHOOL STORY $9.73 Pub.
Yr: 2000 Age Range: 7 – 11 AR RL: 4.30 Felicity is torn between her friendship
with an English girl and her support of the Revolution.
_____ 890783 Tripp, Valerie FELICITY SAVES THE DAY: A SUMMER STORY $9.73 Pub.
Yr: 1992 Age Range: 7 – 11 AR RL: 4.50 During a visit to Virginia in 1775,
Felicity’s loyalty is torn between her father and Ben, her father’s apprentice.
_____ 890825 Tripp, Valerie HAPPY BIRTHDAY, FELICITY!: A SPRINGTIME STORY $9.73
Pub. Yr: 1992 Age Range: 7 – 11 AR RL: 4.20 As her 10th birthday approaches,
Felicity is excited by her grandfather’s visit.
_____ 973469 Yolen, Jane MIZ BERLIN WALKS $10.55 Pub. Yr: 2000 Age
Range: 4 – 8 AR RL: 4.10 Mary Louise gradually gets to know and love her elderly
neighbor lady who tells wonderful stories as she walks around the block of her
Virginia home.
WASHINGTON
_____ 293483 Duey, Kathleen JOSIE POE: PALOUSE, WASHINGTON, 1943 $9.55 Pub. Yr:
1999 Age Range: 8 – 12 AR RL: 4.70 In the little farming town of Palouse,
Washington during World War II, Josie
does her part by growing a Victory Garden but is ashamed of her brother for not
enlisting in the armed services.
_____ 351868 Franklin, Kristine L. GRAPE THIEF $16.99 Pub. Yr: 2003 Age Range:
10 – 13 AR RL: 4.20 In 1925, in a small Washington state community made up of
families from different ethnic backgrounds, twelve-year-old Cuss tries to stay in
school as he watches those around him struggle with various financial difficulties.
_____ 449047 Hobbs, Will JACKIE’S WILD SEATTLE $16.29 Pub. Yr: 2003 Age Range:
10 – 14 AR RL: 4.60 Fourteen-year-old Shannon and her little brother, Cody, spend
the summer with their uncle, helping at a wildlife rescue center named Jackie’s
Wild Seattle.
_____ 460030 Holm, Jennifer L. BOSTON JANE: AN ADVENTURE $16.27 Pub. Yr: 2001
Age Range: 10 – 16 AR RL: 4.90 Schooled in etiquette, Jane finds little use for
manners during her sea voyage to the Pacific Northwest and while living among the
American traders and Chinook Indians of Washington Territory.
_____ 460032 Holm, Jennifer L. BOSTON JANE: THE CLAIM $16.29 Pub. Yr: 2004 Age
Range: 10 –14 AR RL: 5.10 The arrival of nemesis Sally Biddle from Philadelphia
and the return of ex-fiance Richard Baldt spell trouble for seventeen-year-old Jane
Peck, who has survived on her own in Shoalwater Bay.
_____ 460060 Holm, Jennifer L. OUR ONLY MAY AMELIA $16.99 Pub. Yr: 1999 Age
Range: 10 – 16 AR RL: 4.80 As the only girl in a Finnish American family of seven
brothers, May Amelia Jackson resents being expected to act like a lady while
growing up in Washington state in 1899.
WEST VIRGINIA
_____ 668696 Naylor, Phyllis Reynolds SAVING SHILOH $15.60 Pub. Yr: 1997 Age
Range: 8 – 12 AR RL: 4.90 Sixth-grader, Marty, and his family try to help their
rough neighbor, Judd Travers, change his mean ways, even though their West Virginia
community continues to expect the worst of him.
_____ 668697 Naylor, Phyllis Reynolds SHILOH $16.30 Pub. Yr: 1991 Age Range: 8 –
12 AR RL: 4.40 When he finds a lost beagle in the hills behind his West Virginia
home, Marty tries to hide it from the dog’s real owner, a mean-spirited man known
to mistreat his dogs.
____ 668705 Naylor, Phyllis Reynolds SHILOH SEASON $15.60 Pub. Yr: 1996 Age
Range: 8 – 12 AR RL: 4.80 When mean and angry Judd, who has never known kindness,
takes to drinking and mistreats his dogs, Marty discovers how deep a hurt can go
and how long it takes to heal.
_____ 774032 Rylant, Cynthia BLUE-EYED DAISY $15.60 Pub. Yr: 1985 Age Range: 10
-12 AR RL: 4.60 Relates episodes in the life of eleven year-old Ellie and her
family who live in a coal mining town in West Virginia.
_____ 774070 Rylant, Cynthia MISSING MAY $15.57 Pub. Yr: 1992 Age Range: 11 – 16
AR RL: 5.30 After the death of the beloved aunt who has raised her,
twelve-year-old Summer and her uncle Ob leave their West Virginia trailer in search
of the strength to go on living.
_____ 794148 Seabrooke, Brenda HAUNTING OF SWAIN’S FANCY $16.99 Pub. Yr: 2003
Age Range: 10 – 13 AR RL: 4.10 Eleven-year-old Taylor spends the summer with her
father and his new family in a historic house and, while contending with hostility
from her stepsister, Nicole, attempts to solve the mystery of ghosts who haunt the
site.
_____ 972948 Yep, Laurence DREAM SOUL $16.27 Pub. Yr: 2000 Age Range: 8 – 12 AR
RL: 4.80 In 1927, as Christmas approaches, fifteen-year-old Joan Lee hopes to
get her parents’ permission to celebrate the holiday, one of the problems belonging
to the only Chinese American family in her small West Virginia community.
WISCONSIN
_____ 042035 Addy, Sharon RIGHT HERE ON THIS SPOT $15.60 Pub. Yr: 1999 Age Range:
3 – 7 AR RL: 3.00 While digging a ditch in his cabbage field, Grandpa uncovers
various items that provide clues to what has happened in that area of Wisconsin
from the Time of the Ice Age to the twentieth century.
_____ 152451 Brink, Carol Ryrie CADDIE WOODLAWN $17.00 Pub. Yr: 1973 Age Range:
9 – 12 AR RL: 6.00 The adventures of an eleven-year-old tomboy growing up on the
Wisconsin frontier in the mid-nineteenth century.
_____ 311966 Enright, Elizabeth THIMBLE SUMMER $19.07 Pub. Yr: 1966 Age Range: 8
– 12 AR RL: 5.70 When Garnet Linden finds a silver thimble in a dried up river bed
she knows it is a good omen. Sure enough, good things begin to happen to Garnet
and her family.
_____ 372864 Geisert, Arthur GIANT BALL OF STRING $16.30 Pub. Yr: 2002 Age
Range: 4 – 8 AR RL: 3.70 Rumpus Ridge, Wisconsin is proud to have the biggest ball
of string in the world, so when they lose their treasure to a nearby town they
devise a clever plan to get it back.
_____ 704698 Paulsen, Gary ISLAND $17.67 Pub. Yr: 1988 Age Range: 11 – 14 AR RL:
5.70 Fifteen-year-old Wil discovers himself and the wonders of nature when he
leaves home to live on an island in northern Wisconsin.
_____ 946740 Wilder, Laura Ingalls CHRISTMAS IN THE BIG WOODS: ADAPTED FROM THE
LITTLE HOUSE BOOKS $10.03 Pub. Yr: 1995 Age Range: 3 – 8 AR RL: 3.80 A young
pioneer girl and her family celebrate Christmas in their cabin in the woods.
_____ 946760 Wilder, Laura Ingalls DEER IN THE WOOD $10.05 Pub. Yr: 1995 Age
Range: 3 – 8 AR RL: 3.20 A pioneer father tells his daughters why he was unable to
shoot a deer for their dinner.
_____ 946795 Wilder, Laura Ingalls GOING TO TOWN: ADAPTED FROM THE LITTLE HOUSE
BOOKS $10.05 Pub. Yr: 1995 Age Range: 3 – 8 AR RL: 3.70 A little girl and her
family make their first trip into town to visit the general store.
_____ 946910 Wilder, Laura Ingalls LITTLE HOUSE IN THE BIG WOODS $16.99 Pub. Yr:
1953 Age Range: 9 – 13 AR RL: 5.30 Laura and her family experience joy and
hardship in a log house far from any other settlers.
_____ 947127 Wilder, Laura Ingalls SUMMERTIME IN THE BIG WOODS $10.05 Pub. Yr:
1996 Age Range: 3 – 8 AR RL: 3.20 A little girl and her pioneer family spend a
summer in the Big Woods of Wisconsin.
_____ 947150 Wilder, Laura Ingalls WINTER DAYS IN THE BIG WOODS: ADAPTED FROM THE
LITTLE HOUSE BOOKS $10.05 Pub. Yr: 1994 Age Range: 3 – 8 AR RL: 4.00 A young
pioneer girl and her family spend the winter in their log cabin in Wisconsin.
_____ 967675 Wright, Betty Ren CRANDALLS’ CASTLE $16.97 Pub. Yr: 2003 Age Range:
8 – 12 AR RL: 4.60 Charli’s uncle, Will Crandall, decides to buy an abandoned
castle and fix it up, but Charli and Sophia, a clairvoyant who has come to stay
with the Crandall’s, know his plan is somehow dangerous.
WYOMING
_____ 054456 Alphin, Elaine Marie DINOSAUR HUNTER $16.29 Pub. Yr: 2003 Age
Range: 8 – 9 AR RL: 3.00 A young boy finds a dinosaur skeleton, outwits a man who
would cheat him, and sells his find to a team of fossil hunters.
_____ 668715 Naylor, Phyllis Reynolds WALKER’S CROSSING $16.30 Pub. Yr: 1999 Age
Range: 10 – 14 AR RL: 5.40 While living on his family’s ranch in Wyoming where he
hopes to someday be a cowboy, Ryan faces conflicts with his older brother, who
becomes involved in a militia movement.
_____ 781981 Schaefer, Jack SHANE $20.50 Pub. Yr: 2001 Age Range: 10 – 14 AR RL:
5.50 A mysterious man rides into a small Wyoming valley, where he joins
homesteaders who take a stand against a bullying cattle rancher.
_____ 916867 Wallace, Bill RED DOG $16.97 Pub. Yr: 1987 Age Range: 8 - 12 AR RL:
4.40 Living with his family in the rugged Wyoming mountains in the 1860s,
twelve-year-old Adam finds his courage put to the test when he is left in charge of
the household during his stepfather’s absence.
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