Books with author Jean Ferris

Inspired by the author's work in a girls' rehabilitation center. Ray called it skating when we did the crazy things . . . Hot-wiring a fancy car for a joyride after midnight. Boosting stuff from stores . . . Sixteen-year-old Dallas loves the rush, the excitement of "skating." But then she and her friends decide to rob a convenience store and it's Dallas who gets caught while the others get away. Since it is her first offense, she thinks her father will help her out - but when the judge says she can go home on probation her father says no, he can't control her. So the judge gives Dallas six months in the Girls' Rehabilitation Center. Once there, Dallas meets an assortment of "bad" girls, many of whom don't expect to change, and those who do often don't make it. How Dallas comes to terms with herself - both the bad and the good - makes for a heartfelt and insightful novel about troubled teenagers and the odds they face in trying to turn their lives around.

In 1839, visitors from miles around come to Kentucky to tour Mammoth Cave. But sixteen-year-old Charlotte, the maid at Mammoth Cave Hotel, doesn't understand its appeal. As a slave, she is already trapped, and she doesn't see the point in risking being trapped underground as well. Still, she's curious when Stephen Bishop, another slave who is the cave's expert guide and chief explorer, makes some big discoveries underground, and she's interested in Stephen himself, with his quick mind and kind ways. Then Charlotte makes a discovery of her own: runaway slaves sometimes come to the hotel seeking refuge. As she helps them, she wonders if she should run away. Stephen, on the other hand, feels that he belongs with the cave and that he is free enough when he is underground. When an opportunity presents itself, Charlotte must decide whether she should stay with Stephen or risk everything for her own chance at freedom. In this compelling novel, two young people explore what sorts of freedom they can find, even as slaves.

Through howling snowstorms and over treacherous sheets of ice, Matthew Henson and Robert Peary raced against other explorers and death itself to be the first to reach the North Pole. After six expeditions and eighteen years, they finally planted the American flag at the top of the world on April 6, 1909. Because he was a black man, Henson had to start out as Peary's servant. But with his intelligence, bravery, and resourcefulness, Matthew Henson soon became Peary's chief assistant.