In 1919, just before Christmas, the S.S. Ethie sets sail for St. John’s Harbor, but a violent winter storm casts the steamship onto the rocky cliffs of northwest Newfoundland, threatening the passengers’ survival

Ninety-two passengers and crew, all eager to be reunited with family for the holidays, are now at the mercy of the stormy sea. Seeing the wrecked ship off the coast, a fishing family sends their dog Skipper, a hardworking and courageous Newfoundland, to brave the icy and dangerous waters to carry a lifeline from the sinking ship to shore.

In this minute-by-minute fictionalized account of the S.S. Ethie’s dramatic voyage, Hillary Hyland vividly brings the adventure to life, showing the spirit of survival amongst the passengers and crew, as well as the strength and determination of a poor fishing family and their courageous dog to save those ninety-two souls.

The year is 1852. Ten-year-old Emma Wright and her mama have boarded the Sally May for a steamboat journey that will take them up the Mississippi River, but nothing could prepare them for the danger and adventure ahead.

When concern over her beloved pony, Licorice Twist, lures Emma below to the main deck―a place that she has been forbidden to go―Emma is shocked by what she encounters. Here is a world completely different than the pampered one above with its comfortable stateroom and fine food. Here livestock and poor immigrants huddle together―underfed, unclean, and exhausted.

Soon Emma is making regular trips below, ferrying food to Patrick, an eleven-year-old stowaway who recently emigrated from Ireland. Slowly, Emma and Patrick develop a friendship that spans classes and ship levels. When the boiler explodes and the steamboat starts sinking, Emma fights her way through the black smoke to find her friends and family. But is it too late?

From the author of the award-winning Racing to Freedom trilogy, Alison Hart brings to life a nineteenth-century adventure.

During the Civil War, fourteen-year-old Jacob Knight returns from the cornfield one day to find bushwhackers―Confederate sympathizers in the Union state of Missouri―terrorizing his family.

At the insistence of his mother, Jacob and his seven-year-old sister, Eliza, flee the house for safety. When the two young people dare to return home the following morning, their family is nowhere to be found, and their home is burnt to the ground. Not knowing what else to do, Jacob and Eliza take their one remaining horse and journey north to their aunt’s home in Iowa, hoping to find their missing family members there.

Jennifer Johnson Garrity brings the American Civil War era to life in this story about family, trust, and courage during a time of great uncertainty.

When a fierce blizzard suddenly kicks up on a mild winter day, a young Nebraska girl must find the courage and strength to lead others to safety.

It is 1888. Twelve-year-old Anna loves life on the Nebraska prairie where she lives with her parents and four-year-old brother in a simple sod house. She doesn’t mind helping out with chores, especially when she is herding sheep with her beloved pony, Top Hat. On the open prairie, Anna feels at home. But at school she feels hopelessly out of place. Arithmetic is too hard, her penmanship is abysmal, and stuck-up Eloise Baxter always laughs at her mistakes.

When an intense Nebraska blizzard traps Anna, her schoolmates, and young teacher in the one-room schoolhouse, Anna knows they must escape before it is too late.  Does she have the courage and strength to lead her school through the whiteout to safety?

Alison Hart offers young readers a dramatic story of rescue and survival featuring a plucky, determined protagonist. An author’s note provides more information about prairie life in the late nineteenth century and about the great storm that hit Nebraska in 1888, now known as “The School Children’s Blizzard.”