Central Kansas Library System

Carved on the trunk of the mighty copper beech that embraces the school yard in Shancarrig are declarations of love, hope, and identity - the youthful dreams of the children who played there. Now grown, yet shaped by their years in the schoolhouse, they lead different lives. The Copper Beech is about eight of these dreamers. From Ryan's Hotel to Barna Woods, where the gypsies came each year, from Nellie Dunne's sweet shop to Father Gunn's church,...

Kate Ryan and her husband, John, have a rollicking pub in the Irish village of Mountfern . . . four lovely children . . . and such wonderful dreams. But all that is about to change one fateful summer when American millionaire Patrick O'Neill comes to town with his irresistible charm, and money to burn. As love and hate vie for a town's quiet heart, old traditions begin to crumble away. . . . 
Patrick O'Neill builds the grand hotel of his dreams,...

Thirteen-year-old fraternal twins Dallas and Florida have grown up in a terrible orphanage but their lives change forever when an eccentric but sweet older couple invites them each on an adventure, beginning in an almost magical place called Ruby Holler.

When Dr. Louis Creed takes a new job and moves his family to the idyllic and rural town of Ludlow, Maine, this new beginning seems too good to be true. Yet despite Ludlow's tranquility, there's an undercurrent of danger that exists here. Those trucks on the road outside the Creed's beautiful old home travel by just a little too quickly, for one thing...as is evidenced by the makeshift pet cemetery out back in the nearby woods. Then there are the warnings...

All the world's a stage--and now Jim Qwilleran's apple orchard has become the stage--for a real-life murder scene. The much-disliked director of the Pickax Theatre Club's Shakespeare production, Hilary van Brook, is found dead after the closing-night cast party...and with the help of his super-smart Siamese, Qwill must cast a suspicious eye on all the players--especially the ones pussyfooting around behind the scenes.

Set in a little-known backwoods region of Florida, Strawberry Girl is the first of the Lenski regional books and the winner of the Newbery award.

In 1937, during the Depression, fifteen-year-old Mary Alice, initially apprehensive about leaving Chicago to spend a year with her fearsome, larger-than-life grandmother in rural Illinois, gradually begins to better understand and admire her grandmother's unusual qualities.

After living in Chicago apartments his whole life, Brad loves his new home in rural Oklahoma. He's even got an instant best friend: Nolan, his neighbor at the next farm. And now that his family has a house with a yard, he's sure his parents will finally let him get a dog. But all his dad keeps saying is "We'll see." Then Brad discovers an orphaned coyote pup and decides that this is the dog he wants. Soon he is secretly taking care of the wild...

Interviews and essays describe the way of life and crafts of pioneer America still surviving in the Appalachian region.