Akron Public Library

Though he may not speak of them, the memories still dwell inside Jacob Jankowski's ninety-something-year-old mind. Memories of himself as a young man, tossed by fate onto a rickety train that was home to the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth. Memories of a world filled with freaks and clowns, with wonder and pain and anger and passion; a world with its own narrow, irrational rules, its own way of life, and its own way of death. The world...

Twelve-year-old Abilene Tucker is the daughter of a drifter who, in the summer of 1936, sends her to stay with an old friend in Manifest, Kansas, where he grew up, and where she hopes to find out some things about his past.

The peace and prosperity promised with the end of World War I fails to come to pass for two ex-soldiers--Arkansas farmer Birch Tucker, who faces the loss of everything he and his family have worked for; and Max Meyer, a financial columnist who may have to forfeit his wealth and influence to gain the son he never knew he had.

"[A]n epic novel of love and heroism and hope, set against the backdrop of one of America's most defining eras--the Great Depression. Texas, 1934. Millions are out of work and a drought has broken the Great Plains. Farmers are fighting to keep their land and their livelihoods as the crops are failing, the water is drying up, and dust threatens to bury them all. One of the darkest periods of the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl era, has arrived with...

The story of a farm family's Depression-era journey from the Dustbowl of Oklahoma to the California migrant labor camps in search of a better life.

The Worthams and Hammonds are as close as two families could be, sharing almost everything on their Depression-era Illinois farms. So when a raging fire breaks out and threatens to destroy the Hammond farm, both families are affected by the tragedy. But how did the fire start? Several of the kids know the truth, but no one is talking. As the families try to overcome aching loss, misplaced blame, troubled relationships, and an upsetting secret, they...

Originally written and slated for publication in 1939, this long-forgotten masterpiece was shelved by Random House when The Grapes of Wrath met with wide acclaim. In the belief that Steinbeck already adequately explored the subject matter, Babb's lyrical novel about a farm family's relentless struggle to survive in both Depression-era Oklahoma and in the California migrant labor camps gathered dust for decades.^B Rescued from obscurity by the University...

In 1932 Route 66 through Sayre, Oklahoma, saw a steady stream of dust bowl refugees, and many stopped at the garage owned by one-legged Andy Connors for fuel, repairs, a drink of water, or to rest in his campground. Big, brawny, and relatively well-off, H. L. Yates has come to Sayre to pay an old debt to Andy and finds the perfect way to do it when Andy is bitten by a rabid skunk. After taking him to the hospital, Yates takes over running the garage...

Award-winning author Patricia Hickman presents the first installment in the Millwood Hollow series about an unlikely hero and a trio of abandoned siblings struggling for survival in the South during the Great Depression. Jeb Nubey hides a secret about his past that has left him alienated from his family and hiding from the law. Against his better judgment, the Welbys, a trio of abandoned siblings, convince him to give them a ride into the town of...

In this true-to-life story set during the Depression, the Wortham family tries to help a family of ten children when their mother passes away.