Central Kansas Library System

During the Great Depression six-year-old Marvel, her seven siblings, and their mother find a tar-paper shack in the woods and, over the course of a year, turn it into a home. Based on the author's grandmother's childhood; includes historical notes.

Despite their own poverty since Daddy died, Mama tells nine-year-old James Otis they need to help Sarah, whose family lost everything in a fire.

In a mountain village in Morocco, an Englishwoman transforms the lives of her visiting niece, a blind baby girl, and an eleven-year-old boy through her work as a missionary nurse.

Thirteen-year-old Jeff's life spirals downward into homelessness after his alcoholic mother loses her job.--

Ten-year-old Rupert, from a very large, very poor family, accidentally becomes part of an eccentric rich family's life beginning at Christmas, and soon sees that wealth is not everything.

In Canada early in the twentieth century, Ben, the youngest in a family of Jewish immigrants struggling to make ends meet, decides to help out but when a hat maker gives him a chance, disaster strikes and Ben nearly loses hope.

"Omar must contend with being treated like a second-class citizen when he gets a scholarship to an elite boarding school"--

This is going to be an odd Christmas, no doubt about it. Instead of sugar plums and stockings stuffed with goodies and stacks of presents under the tree, a Time of Bounty, I am thinking of this as the time of the dwindling. Everything is diminishing our money, the light of day and even the hours that papa works.

The wares of the poor little match girl illuminate her cold world, bringing some beauty to her brief, tragic life.

A boy climbs to the top of a giant beanstalk where he uses his quick wits to outsmart a giant and make his and his mother's fortune.