Books with author Ellen Howard

Late by only a minute, ten-year-old Emma has been locked out of the mill where she works ten hours a day at the silk-spinning machines. Her pay will be docked; she is sure to be beaten by her brother-in-law, Ben, when she gets home; and none of it is her fault. She sinks to the ground and cries. Then, through her tears, she sees a gate in a wall, a gate she has never seen before. Hesitantly she pushes through, putting off her return home. And through that gate she finds not only a waterway, which she later learns is a canal, and a strangely beautiful boat, but the entrance to a whole new future.

When eleven-year-old Pierre Talon, son of a French Canadian Voyageur, sets out in 1684 on what became the last, ill-fated expedition of the great French explorer Rene-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, he hopes to find help for his family, who are struggling in a settlement decimated by hunger, ilness, and Indian attacks. But the expedition to relocate the Mississippi River unravels when La Salle and his closest aides are murdered. Pierrre falls deathly ill, and into the hands of the Hasinai Indians. To his surprise, he finds that the Hasinai have a well-ordered, prosperous, and peaceful community. It is there that Pierre becomes a man, learning to hunt and fish, to swim, work the fields and build houses. But eventually he must choose between embracing the Hasinai ways forever or risking his life to hold onto his European identity and family responsibilities. Based on actual historical figures and events, this is a gripping survival story filled with fast friendships and cruel betrayals, cowardice and greed, courage and generosity. Pierre Talon's remarkable adventure will captivate young readers.