Set on a communal farm called Blithedale, "The Blithedale Romance" is the story of four inhabitants of the commune: Hollingsworth, a misogynist philanthropist obsessed with turning Blithedale into a colony for the reformation of criminals; Zenobia, a passionate feminist; Priscilla, who turns out to be Zenobia's half-sister; and Miles Coverdale, the narrator of the story. The story concerns the freindship of the four at the commune, which starts intensely...

Nilda Carlson and her younger brother Ivar come to America to join her older brother Rune and his family on the Strand farm in Minnesota. Uncle Einar Strand refuses to help Rune build a house for his family and forbids the community to come onto his land. Can the tragedy that reveals Einar's anger and isolation bring the Carlsons and Strands together into a true family?

"Follows the German-American Hess family during the volatile, unstable years after World War I as they attempt to overcome the xenophobic sentiment that threatens their safety. Though Jon Julius and his wife Margrit have been settled on their midwestern land for over twenty years, their German heritage and dual loyalties are looked upon by neighbors with great suspicion and alarm. When the youngest two daughters vanish in the middle of the night,...

Three goslings named Gertie, Gossie, and Ollie have fun stomping around in their bright rubber boots.

Enidina Current and Mary Morrow live on neighboring farms in the flat, hard country of the upper Midwest during the early 1900s. This hardscrabble life comes easily to some, like Eddie, who has never wanted more than the land she works and the animals she raises on it with her husband, Frank. But for the deeply religious Mary, farming is an awkward living and at odds with her more cosmopolitan inclinations. Still, Mary creates a clean and orderly...

"Madysen Powell has always been a forgiving person, but when her supposedly dead father shows up in Nome, Alaska, her gift for forgiveness is tested. With the recent loss of her mother, she searches for answers, leaning on Granny Beaufort, a neighbor in town, who listens with a kind heart. Still, Madysen is restless and dreams of performing her music around the world. The arrival of a traveling show could prove just the chance she needs, and the manager...

"Tracy Campbell never wanted to leave Hope Harbor, Oregon, or the idyllic three-generation cranberry farm where she grew up. But life--and love--altered her plans. When tragedy strikes and changes her plans yet again, she finds herself back in her hometown with a floundering farm to run and a heartbreaking secret. Romance is not on her agenda. Nor is it on Michael Hunter's. The visitor from Chicago has daunting secrets of his own. But when Tracy recruits...

Set in China, this is a drama about a simple peasant farmer who grows rich with the help of his faithful wife. Tragedy follows as he betrays his family and neglects the earth he had worshiped.

The farmer is snoozing on the hay in his barn, surrounded by his dozy animals, when the fly buzzing about lands on his nose! Of course he sneezes, which sets off a long chain of consequences, until finally the terrified donkey panics! It has been compared to the traditional rhyme, The House That Jack Built, and has the same satisfying cause and result domino effect!

Publishers Weekly: "Julia's recovery . . . parallels a deeper change-adaptation to a new kind of family life and eventual friendship with Grace, her "beastly" cousin. Julia's realization that she has behaved in a snobbish, self-centered, unlikeable fashion-and her subsequent maturity-is fully delineated and the 19th century setting is effectively evoked. . . . well sustained . . . a light, seamless style." The year is 1887 and twelve-year-old Julia...