Fifteen-year-old Dusty, a ward of the state, is forced to work in a logging camp during the Depression. Despite the bleakness of her life, spirited Dusty dreams of escape.
Americas
Materials from the Americas
Trollerella
This version of the Cinderella story features a troll living under a bridge who finds an invitation to a ball, where she dances with Prince Charming.
Sally Ann Thunder Ann Whirlwind Crockett
Sally Ann, wife of Davy Crockett, fears nothing–and proves it when braggart Mike Fink tries to scare her. On the day she is born this amazing baby proudly announces she can out-talk, out-grin, out-scream, out-swim, and out-run any baby in Kentucky. Within a few years Sally is off to the frontier, where she stuns a hungry grizzly bear, makes a lasso out of six rattlesnakes, and is more than a match for the mighty Mike Fink. And when Sally Ann rescues Davy Crockett from a pair of ferocious eagles, even her hornet’s-nest bonnet and skunk perfume don’t stop him from proposing marriage. You won’t find Sally Ann in any history book, but that hasn’t kept her from becoming an authentic American frontier legend and the unforgettable heroine of Steven Kellogg’s most delightfully rip-roaring tall tale.
John Henry
Retells the life of the legendary African American hero who raced against a steam drill to cut through a mountain.
Cinderella (As If You Didn’t Already Know The Story)
In this updated version of the Cinderella story, Cinderella writes letters to her dead mother apologizing for not being more assertive, which she remedies soon after marrying the prince. Readers will delight in following Cinderella through all the usual happenings, presented in a most unusual way. And they’ll finally see what becomes of her after she marries the prince. So maybe you should hear the story one last time. Because it’s actually way different than you might have thought. Kids who have outgrown picture books and are ready for something longer – but still love illustrated texts – will gravitate toward this Cinderella. Black-and-white silhouettes of everything from the ugly stepsisters to Cinderella’s slipper (actual size) are intermingled with Cinderella’s letters to her recently deceased mother in this totally original package, written and illustrated by an exciting newcomer to children’s books.
Witcracks
Traces the history and gives examples of puns, shaggy-dog stories, and other jokes from American humor of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Tucker Pfeffercorn
A retelling of the classic Rumpelstiltskin tale with a Southern setting.
Rip Van Winkle’s Return
Rip Van Winkle is an idler who would rather starve for a penny than work for a pound, and his wife is constantly nagging him. In search of peace, Rip heads off to the woods one day with his faithful dog, Wolf. High up in the Catskill Mountains, Rip meets an unusual group of little men. He drinks their strong beverage and falls into a deep sleep. When he awakens, he finds that twenty years have passed – the world has changed and so has he. With vibrant paintings by Leonard Everett Fisher, Eric A. Kimmel’s adaptation of Washington Irving’s classic “Rip Van Winkle” introduces a Rip who reforms as a result of his experience.
Many Thousand Gone: African Americans from Slavery to Freedom
Recounts the journey of Black slaves to freedom via the underground railroad, an extended group of people who helped fugitive slaves in many ways.
Alice Nizzy Nazzy: The Witch Of Santa Fe
When Manuela’s sheep are stolen, she has to go to Alice Nizzy Nazzy’s talking road-runner-footed adobe house and try to get the witch to give the flock back, in a Southwestern version of the Baba Yaga story.