One hundred years ago. When I was growing up, this seemed like an impossibly long time in the past. The Civil War had just ended! Everything about daily life was drastically different. And now... one hundred years ago, there were cars, refrigerators, knee length dresses, and women playing sports. ...

Born in 1927, Althea Gibson experienced the racial and gender disparities that were prevalent at the time, but were in the process of being changed. For example, the all Black Women's Tennis Association was formed in 1916. Growing up in Harlem, Althea had opportunities to play many sports casually, in...

While there are a number of excellent books about women's suffrage available, including Kops' Alice Paul, Zimet's Roses and Radicals, and Bausum's With Courage and Cloth, this book is a bit unusual-- it focuses more on the British movement to get women the vote. It does touch on some US...

This is a combination of two Big Nate novels; Big Nate on a Roll and Big Nate Goes For Broke. These notebook novels are carefully crafted around the plot, so I'll give a synopsis of each one. Nate often uses his skateboard to get...

Jack and Annie get an invitation from "M" to spend Christmas in Camelot, which excites them since they haven't heard from Morgan much lately. They manage to travel there without a book, wishing on the letter. Once there, they find out that things are not good in the kingdom, since...

Marty Fontana and his mother move to a new town for her job, and have a house that belonged to a scientist, who left lots of dusty boxes in his wake. Marty is scared to start fifth grade, because he knows that the simplest missteps will ruin his entire year....

Danny lives in Texas with his mother and former Pittsburgh Steelers player father, who now sells farm machinery. The father pushes Danny to be great at the game, and he's also a fairly nice, polite kid. When the father dies of a heart attack while out on a run with...

Pippa loves to play basketball and struggles a tiny bit in school. She lives with her much older sister, Mina, and Mina's husband, and works in her sister's laundry to help out. Her mother's visa has expired, and she has returned to Korea. Mina pressures Pippa to do well in...

Izzy is very interested in comedy, perhaps because her own life is anything but humorous. Her parents are divorced, and she rarely sees her father, who lives a distance away and is busy with his new wife. Her mother is a bit stressed, and dating Izzy's dentist, Dr. Gustino! Her...

Keenan ends up living with his father on an island that is part Canada and part US when he is diagnosed with tuberculosis. He got the disease in his travels with his mother, who flits from country to county, and being in Canada is both restful and boring, especially since...

The town of Callaway, Texas, is a refuge from the global war that is going on and affecting Los Angeles. Avery has moved there because it was where her mother grew up, and when her parents divorced, her father was too busy with everything to spend any time with her....

Gabby travels from Peach Tree to Seattle with her family for a vacation, but it ends disastrously. Not only is it gray and rainy the whole time, but she trips over a hot dog at a Mariners' game and breaks her arm! Back at school, she's upset she can't play...

Gabby's year is going very well, and she's just about to make the most brilliant baseball play of her life when her world comes crashing down-- the principal tells everyone that the area around the school must be evacuated because of asbestos. Even worse, the students will all have to...

Moth lives in Founder's Bluff on the east coast, and her town has an annual celebration that celebrations the founders, the Kramers, triumphing over a group of witches. The problem? Moth finds out after a small incident that she and her mother are, in fact, witches! She keeps this fact...

Cindy finds that middle school in the early 1970s is fairly stressful-- all the cool girls are wearing elephant bells and blue eyeshadow, but her parents are more conservative and make her wear longer dresses and sensible shoes. She also finds that they encourage her brothers more than they encourage...