Akron Public Library

Born with a withered leg and hand, Pascal, who is about twelve years old, joins other former slaves in a search for a farm and the freedom which it promises.

With the realization that his father may not return now that the Civil War is over, thirteen-year-old Tyler finds himself the man of their Missouri farm and the master of a new dog, the strikingly colored Sooner.

Cherishing the special broom resting above her hearth for its representation of the slave heritage that once forbade legal marriages, Ellen prepares for her parents' triumphant registry at a Reconstruction-era courthouse as lawful husband and wife and proudly carries the broom so that they can repeat a cultural wedding tradition.

In 1892, Dom, a nine-year old stowaway from Naples, Italy, arrives in New York and must learn to survive the perils of street life in the big city.

Much has been written about P. T. Barnum -- legendary showman, entrepreneur, marketing genius, and one of the most famous nineteenth-century personalities. For those who lived in Barnum's shadow, however, life was complex. P. T. Barnum's two families -- his family at home, including his two wives and his daughters, and his family at work, including Little People, a giantess, an opera singer, and many sideshow entertainers -- suffered greatly from...

Nineteen-year-old Sarah masquerades as a man during the Civil War, serving as a nurse on the battlefield and a spy for the Union Army, escaping from the Confederates, and falling in love with one of her fellow soldiers. Based on the life of Sarah Emma Edmonds.

In 1896, fourteen-year-old "giant" Fern "Babe" Killingsworth joins a travelling carnival where she befriends a dwarf and some animals, with whom she escapes the clutches of a corrupt businessman.