Central Kansas Library System

As the daughter of a newspaper reporter, fourteen-year-old Libby keeps a diary account of the exciting events surrounding her during the building of the railroad in the West in 1868.

Having returned from living with his friends the Shoshoni, seventeen-year-old Jimmy Spoon grows restless again and seeks adventure by taking a job with the Pony Express.

As Nessa continues to struggle since coming to Prairie River, and things aren't getting easier, she's having trouble making friends, her job as the town teacher is on shaky ground, and she learns that many people still have doubts about her. On a personal note, Nessa wants to be Ivy's friend, so she decides to tell her a secret, someone else's secret, and it swells into a devastating rumor. Professionally, Nessa is reinstated as the town's teacher...

In her diary, thirteen-year-old Hattie chronicles her family's arduous 1847 journey from Missouri to Oregon on the Oregon Trail. In a diary format, this novel chronicles the hardships that pioneers endured during a trip west on the Oregon Trail.