Twelve year-old Zipporah (Zippy) Feldman is a Russian Jewish immigrant living with her family in a crowded tenement on Manhattan's Lower East Side. While Zippy faces the challenge of learning English and making new friends, her older sister Tovah fights to improve the working conditions of her sweatshop and struggles to hide her forbidden romance with a handsome Irish boy.

"Clotee, a twelve year-old slave, is teaching herself to spell a word she's never been able to understand. But no one can find out she can read and write -- she could be beaten, sold, or worse. Her friends Spicey and Hince are in love, and when the master decides to tear them apart, Clotee knows she must come up with a plan. She risks everything to help her friends and family, and learns that freedom is more than just a word -- it's an entire world."...

When General George Washington's troops first set up camp near Abigail Stewart's home, Abby believes war is exciting and glamorous. But during the long winter Abby sees for herself the hardships of war, as soldiers are starving, wounded, or dying. Abby must summon a newfound strength to help the soldiers and their loved ones carry on.

Nine-year-old Elizabeth keeps a journal of her experiences in the New World as she encounters Indians, suffers hunger and the death of friends, and helps her father build their first home.

Elizabeth Barker continues to write to her "friend," her diary, as disease and lack of food further plague the suffering settlers at Jamestown.

Twelve-year-old Deliverance Trembley writes in her diary about the fears and doubts that arise during the 1692 witch hunt and trials in Salem Village, Massachusetts, especially when her pious friend, Goody Corey, is condemned as a witch.

Thirteen-year-old Piper Davis records in her diary her experiences beginning in December 1941 when her brother joins the Navy, the United States goes to war, she attempts to document her life through photography, and her father--the pastor for a Japanese Baptist Church in Seattle--follows his congregants to an Idaho internment camp, taking her along with him. Includes historical notes.

Eleven-year-old Abigail presents a diary account of life in Valley Forge from December 1777 to July 1778 as General Washington prepares his troops to fight the British.

After being orphaned during the influenza epidemic of 1918, eleven-year-old Lydia Pierce and her fourteen-year-old brother are taken by their grieving uncle to be raised in the Shaker community at Sabbathday Lake. Includes author's note about the Shakers.

In 1955 Hadley, Virginia, twelve-year-old Dawnie Rae Johnson, a tomboy who excels at baseball and at her studies, becomes the first African American student to attend the all-white Prettyman Coburn school, turning her world upside down. Includes historical notes about the period.