Central Kansas Library System

When a novel like Huckleberry Finn, or The Yearling, comes along it defies customary adjectives because of the intensity of the respouse it evokes in the reader. Such a book, we submit, is Old Yeller; to read this eloquently simple story of a boy and his dog in the Texas hill country is an unforgettable and deeply moving experience. Set in the rough wilderness of early frontier Texas, "Old Yeller" is a timeless coming-of-age tale. Travis is left to...

In 1848, while on a wagon train headed for Oregon, fourteen-year-old Francis Tucket is kidnapped by Pawnee Indians and then falls in with a one-armed trapper who teaches him how to live in the wild. Fourteen-year-old Francis Tucket is heading west on the Oregon Trail with his family by wagon train. When he receives a rifle for his birthday, he is thrilled that he is being treated like an adult. But Francis lags behind to practice shooting and is captured...

Describes how it was to live as a pioneer on the Oregon Trail.

The buffalo, an American icon once nearly extinct, has made a comeback. This stirring picture book tells the dramatic story, following bison from the Plains Indians to the cowboys, Teddy Roosevelt to the Dust Bowl, and from the brink of extinction to the majestic herds that now roam our national parks.

Describes what life was like for those children who were uprooted from their midwestern homes and transported by their families across the frontier in wagons and on horseback.

Explores the lives of the children of settlers on the American frontier, looking especially at schooling, chores, home life, food, and recreation.

Excerpts from the diary of a fourteen-year-old girl tell of her family's journey along the Oregon-California Trail during 1849-1850. Includes sidebars, activities, and a timeline related to the era.