Jean-Paul Tibbles

The second Christmas after their mother has died, Josefina and her three sisters find that participating in the traditions of Las Posadas helps keep memories of Mama alive.

Josefina and her sisters distrust learning to read and write, as well as other changes their Tia Dolores is bringing to the household, because they fear they will lose their memories of their mother.

Josefina hopes to become a "curandera" or healer like Tia Magdalena, and she is tested just before her tenth birthday when a friend receives a potentially fatal snakebite.

In 1776, eleven-year-old Felicity suspects that an amateur naturalist visiting her family's Virginia plantation may actually be a British spy mapping Patriot plantations in advance of British raids. Includes historical information about the Revolutionary War.

In 1825 when Josefina trusts a trader in Santa Fe with an important deal, she makes a surprising discovery about this young American who leaves town without paying her.

In 1935, while preparing to write a newspaper story about a theater production of Macbeth in her hometown of Cincinnati, twelve-year-old Kit discovers that a thief is stealing from the box office.

When her family moves to Philadelphia's Society Hill neighborhood in 1866, Addy discovers that her new home holds dangerous secrets--including one connected to the North Carolina plantation she had escaped from only two years earlier. Includes a brief overview of the experiences of African Americans during Reconstruction, the period immediately following the Civil War.

In the summer of 1935, twelve-year-old Kit Kittredge's dog Grace mysteriously vanishes and Kit tries to figure out who took her and why. Includes information about pets and dog shows during the Great Depression.

During a visit to her grandparents' Illinois farm in 1944, ten-year-old Molly tries to prove the innocence of a German-American neighbor whom the FBI suspects of smuggling anti-American propaganda. Includes historical notes about life on the home front in World War II.

In 1958, Mendy puts herself in danger when she discovers that the Ku Klux Klan is planning to bomb the Highlander Folk School in order to disrupt a visit from Mendy's hero, Eleanor Roosevelt.