Karen Hesse

In letters to her cousin, a young Jewish girl chronicles her family's flight from Russia in 1919 and her own experiences when she must be left in Belgium for a while when the others immigrate to America.

Letters from Rifka

In 1860 and 1861, while working in her father's lighthouse on an island off the coast of Delaware, fifteen-year-old Amelia records in her diary how the Civil War is beginning to devastate her divided state.

The Civil War Diary of Amelia Martin, Fenwick Island, Delaware, 1861

A Light in the Storm

A series of poems express the views of various people in a small Vermont town, including a young black girl and a young Jewish girl, during the early 1920s when the Ku Klux Klan is trying to infiltrate the town.

Witness

It is known that in the summer of 1768, Captain James Cook sailed from England on H.M.S Endeavour, beginning a three-year voyage around the world on a secret mission to discover an unknown continent at the bottom of the globe. What is less known is that a boy by the name of Nicholas Young was a stowaway on that ship. Newbery winner Karen Hesse re-creates Cook's momentous voyage through the eyes of this remarkable boy, creating a fictional journal filled with fierce hurricanes, warring natives, and disease, as Nick discovers new lands, incredible creatures, and lifelong friends.

Stowaway

In June 1942, seven months after attacking Pearl Harbor, the Japanese navy invaded Alaska's Aleutian Islands. For nine thousand years the Aleut people had lived and thrived on these treeless, windswept lands. Within days of the first attack, the entire native population living west of Unimak Island was gathered up and evacuated to relocation centers in the dense forests of Alaska's Southeast. With resilience, compassion, and humor, the Aleuts responded to the sorrows of upheaval and dislocation. This is the story of Vera, a young Aleut caught up in the turmoil of war. It chronicles her struggles to survive and to keep community and heritage intact despite harsh conditions in an alien environment.

Aleutian Sparrow

Night Job

When Radley returns to the United States after volunteering abroad, she comes back to a country under military rule with strict travel restrictions, and she must find her way back to her Vermont home through the New England woods.

Safekeeping

Acclaimed author Karen Hesse's Newbery Medal-winning novel-in-verse explores the life of fourteen-year-old Billie Jo growing up in the dust bowls of Oklahoma.

Out of the Dust

Set in the summer in 1903, a young boy dreams of going to the amusement park at Coney Island to see all the attractions, but with so much work at hand, Joseph knows that now is just not the time for fun and games. 50,000 first printing.

Brooklyn Bridge

Realizing that her father's lack of work has endangered her family, nine-year-old Juice Faulstich decides that she must return to school and learn to read in order to help their chances of surviving and keeping their house. Reprint.

Just Juice

Erik Blegvad

Describes anecdotes in the life of the Danish writer, and shows many of these events as the inspiration for his fairy tales.

The Young Hans Christian Andersen

An accident at the nearby nuclear power plant disrupts the peaceful lives of Nyle and her grandmother, as they confront death, anguish, and disaster. By the author of Letters from Rifka. Reprint.

Phoenix Rising

Sick with influenza during the 1918 epidemic and separated from her two sisters, a young Jewish girl living in Boston relies on the help of an old German man, and her visions of angels, to get better and to reunite herself with her family.

A Time of Angels

A luminous and lyrical tribute to the enduring, everyday sort of love between a boy and his father. When the sun sets, Dad's night shift as a school caretaker is just beginning. What is it like to work at night, while the rest of the city is asleep? There's the smell of lilacs in the night air, the dusky motorway in the moonlight and glimpses of shy night-time animals to make the dark magical. Playing basketball in the half-lit sport's hall, sweeping the stage with the match on the radio, reading out loud to his father in the library all help the boy's time pass quickly. But what makes the night really special? Just being with Dad.

Nights with Dad

Sixth grader Maggie feels burdened by her seven-year-old sister Hannie, who is slightly brain-damaged and believes that a toy unicorn has magical powers, until one afternoon a crisis shows her how special Hannie is.

Wish on a Unicorn

A young girl eagerly awaits a coming rainstorm to bring relief from the oppressive summer heat.

Come On, Rain

La musica dei delfini

A girl raised by dolphins must choose between two worlds in this critically acclaimed novel about what it means to be a human being.

The Music of Dolphins

Now I didn't believe a broken-down old unicorn could make wishes come true . . . not for a minute. But what if it could? Mags has a lot to wish for—a nice house with a mama who isn't tired out from work; a normal little sister; a brother who doesn't mooch for food; and, once in a while, she'd like some new clothes for school. When her sister Hannie finds a stuffed unicorn, Mags's wishes start to come true. She knows the unicorn can't really be magic, but she won't let anything ruin her newfound luck—even if it means telling her own sister to believe something that can't possibly be true.

Karen Hesse

Books

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