Books published by publisher Raven Publishing of Montana

In the summer between 7th and 8th grade, Jenna MacDonald does the dumbest thing ever. She tries to save a little girl from drowning. Jenna's family has a secret and her mother wants it kept. Jenna's father is in prison for murder. "Prison reflects on wives and children," Mom says. Keeping the fact of prison secret is made more difficult when the newspaper runs a story about Jenna's "Good Samaritan" rescue at the McNeil Island Corrections Center. Mom is mad, and Jenna just wants to fit in. "He may be in prison, but he's still my dad," Jenna says. As she writes in her journal, the children of prisoners are doing time too. Like more than two million children in the United States, Jenna and her brother struggle with the stigma, loss, separation, and shame of having a parent in prison. This heart-warming story shows what it's like to be one of the innocent victims.

This sequel to Miranda and Starlight reveals further adventure and bonding between ten-year-old Miranda Stevens and the two-year-old black stallion, Starlight. In this volume, Miranda once again takes it upon herself to rescue Starlight from a madman, not once, but twice. When the Shady Hills Ranch groom, Higgins, is injured in a fall, Mr. Taylor hires a stranger named Hicks to take his place. Miranda finds Hicks abusing Starlight, but it's her word against his. Mr. Taylor seems willing to get rid of Starlight because the stranger says the horse is loco. In order to save Starlight, Miranda steals him away at night and hides with him in a cave. She later learns that she was wrong about Mr. Taylor. He has fired Hicks and then helps find Miranda. A stiff horse competition at the State Winter Fair pits Miranda and her friends against the "Magnificent Four," Miranda's classroom nemeses. Just before Miranda is to ride Chris's horse Queen in her event, Hicks, seeking revenge,tries to poison Queen. Once again, Miranda fights to save Starlight. In the end, Starlight saves her from Hicks, whom, they learn, is an escapee from a mental institution.

Joe Henry’s Journey, by Marcia Melton, a historical novel for young readers, follows eleven-year-old Joe Henry Grummond and his Pa on an often perilous journey to find gold. When they board a steamboat to go up the “Big Muddy” Missouri River to Fort Benton, Montana, in 1862, they hope to escape the desperation of the Civil War in their home state of Kentucky and make money in the gold fields of Montana to take back to the family they leave behind.Little does Joe Henry know that this river trip will lead him to untamed wild places where ambush, robberies, claim jumpers, lawless towns, and back-breaking work are the everyday stuff of life in the Bannack, Montana, gold camp. Along the way, Joe Henry learns about many different kinds of people living in the west, finds a best friend, and meets the prettiest girl he’s ever seen. He learns much more than how to pan gold. This frontier territory brings lessons in the struggle between law and lawlessness, vigilantism, and the question of what is justice.This novel accurately portrays the history of its time and places from the viewpoint of a child and wrapped in a story of adventure that will hold a young reader’s interest.

A mining accident, not an uncommon tragedy in Butte, Montana’s copper mines in 1914, upsets 11-year-old Emmie Hynes’s world. With no help available from the mining company that tookEmmie's father’s life, her mother takes Emmie and her brother Conrad across the mountain to the small town of Philipsburg so she can eke out a living by operating a boarding house.

Ten-year-old Miranda Stevens approaches the fifth-grade classroom with trepidation. She must face the same snobby classmates that she met when she came to Montana at the end of the last school year to attend this small rural school, and worst of all, Christopher Bergman, the classroom bully who takes special delight in making Miranda's life miserable. When she makes friends with Laurie Langley, a new girl in school, prospects look brighter—until she gets into a playground fight with Christopher and bloodies his nose. Chris says he won't tell on her if she'll ride one of the horses in the neighboring field. And that's when she sees, Starlight, the horse of her dreams, for the first time—and her troubles begin. Her attempt to mount Starlight fails painfully. Not to be defeated, she rides a gentler mare, which Starlight chases across the field. Mr. Taylor, the owner of Shady Hills ranch doesn't take kindly to having a kid ride one of his horses. He forbids her to set foot on his property again. Miranda plans to obey, but when Chris asks for her help with his thoroughbred mare, Queen, she agrees, only to find when she gets there that Queen lives at Mr. Taylor's stables. She goes in search of Starlight, finds him, accidentally lets him escape his paddock and become injured. She'll risk anything and everything, including Mr. Taylor's wrath, to save Starlight. Friendship, loyalty, courage, and lesson's learned the hard way are all part of Miranda's story as she lives with her grandparents on their dairy farm. Her mother is in California seeking her fortune, and she doesn't know where her father is, or if he even exists. If only she had a horse of her very own, she thinks, nothing else would matter.

Twelve-year-old Miranda Stevens is late for her parents' wedding because of an early-morning mishap while riding her beloved black stallion, Starlight. Her family has grown with the miraculous return of her father and the addition of two foster children who have been left in her mother's care. Miranda and her foster sister, Margot go with Margot's father for a birthday surprise that turn ominous. Later Mom and Grandma treat them to a trail ride at a resort and Margot falls in love with the homely little horse she rides. When they learn that the horse is destined for the cannery, Miranda agrees to help Margot try to save her. Miranda organizes a race, pitting Starlight against the clock as a fund-raiser to buy Margot's horse. The success of the race prompts Mr. Taylor to take Starlight to Texas to race him for big money. Starlight and Miranda pine for each other. The long separation causes both the horse and the girl to go "off their feed." Mr. Taylor persuades Miranda's parents to let her fly to Texas to help the horse recover. Mr. Taylor, whose parents have died, has inherited their ranch and an enormous debt that could force him to lose both his ranches. He believes he is in danger of financial ruin unless Miranda can get Starlight in shape to race again. Adventure and discovery await Miranda in Texas.

Miranda Stevens decides being a teenager and in junior high school is complicated. Her best friend's seventeen-year-old cousin comes to live with Laurie—and to break up her friendship with Miranda. A new boy in school wants all of Miranda's attention when she would rather be riding horses with Christopher. But Chris is spending his time with Jody, the new girl in their class. Miranda much prefers the world of horses. But that gets complicated, too, when she is only half-owner—and not the controlling half—of Starlight, the fastest race horse in the country. She can't keep Mr. Taylor from taking him to races, but when he takes Starlight to a sale, along with his other top racing stock, Miranda feels completely betrayed. If he sells Starlight, she will never forgive him. When Mr. Taylor returns, however, he is as surprised and baffled by Starlight's disappearance as she is. All they can think is that someone has stolen him and that their chances of finding him are not good.In this book about an expanding family of people and horses. It chronicles birth and death, friendships lost and won, heartache and triumph as Miranda's—and Starlight's—loyalty and devotion to friends and to each other are tested.

n this 4th book of the Starlight series, Miranda and her classmates become lost in a cave. Miranda saves Grandpa from being killed by a loco cow, but not before he is injured. Mr. Taylor hires a jockey, expecting Miranda to teach Starlight to accept him. Mom plans to marry Adam Barber, Miranda's worst enemy. Wishing on Shooting Star, Queen's foal, seems to bring amazing answers to Miranda's problems.

Joe Henry Grummond traveled with his father from Kentucky to Montana and back again, in Joe Henry’s Journey, in 1862. Now, in 1866, there is nothing left in Kentucky for Joe’s family, which is comprised of Joe, his father, his grandmother, two younger sisters, and John Abel, a disabled orphan who was once Joe’s nemesis. They join a wagon train for the long journey northwest to return to Montana. With many adventures along the way, they meet with old friends and finally establish a home of their own in Montana Territory.

In this sequel to Jan Young's coming-of-age story, The Orange Slipknot, 12-year-old Ben Lucas strives to balance his desire to gain his father's approval with his need to identify and follow his own convictions.Is he tough enough to please his hot-tempered dad? On the Nevada ranch where his dad cowboys, it's a man's world. His dad wants him to "buck out" some colts, but Ben secretly fears getting bucked off. His former enemy, Fred, the old crusty cowboss, teaches him another way to "start" colts, and it looks like magic! Not only is Fred a mind-reader, but his horse is too, and when Ben rides him, he feels like riding a cloud. That's how Ben wants his colts to feel.Ben fights fire, wrecks his ATV, and punches out his best friend, which gets them both kicked out of school. When Ben and his dad break down out in the middle of nowhere, injuring one horse, there are hard choices to be made as Ben rides for help. Will Ben obey his dad? Will he lie again?In trying to balance loyalty to his dad with admiration for Fred, Ben learns what it means to be tough, that daydreaming and lying are not wise choices, and that he is man enough to stand up to his dad and form his own values.The buckaroo traditions, passed down from the vaqueros, still survive in Great Basin ranch culture, expanded on in the glossary of ranching terms and cowboy slang. Horsey readers will appreciate how "bucking 'em out" is giving way to a better approach to starting colts in today's West. The author's engaging style will keep you turning the pages as you find yourself drawn right into the story.

A proud rich kid meets his match in the most unlikely place—a homeless shelter. The only son of a distant father and a doting mother, 13-year-old Samuel Ellingsford Capulin III, who prefers to be called Captain, is just a little too smart for his own good. His arrogance and disrespect for a teacher lead to his suspension from school for six weeks. The judge orders him to do community service at a homeless shelter. He begins his job with obvious disdain for the people his father calls society's dregs. That attitude slowly changes to awe and respect as he gets to know the patrons in his breakfast line. When he meets a girl his age—on the other side of the serving counter—he is intrigued by her deep sapphire eyes and her secrecy. Captain, who is used to having girls chase him, is challenged by the way she snubs him. Much to his chagrin, he finds himself chasing her. When she finally shares her secrets, Captain begins to regret becoming involved. Strained family relationships, death, a hidden body, and brushes with the law further complicate Captain's life in this fast-paced, coming-of-age story.

An innocent prank has serious consequences for twelve-year-old Ben who wants to show his cowboy father and the surly cow boss that he's ready to take more responsibility. Roping a ground squirrel was not the way to do it. Caught in the midst of their conflict, Ben comes to terms with his life. Ben is impatient to grow up and fill the footprints his father leaves on the Nevada cattle ranch where he works as the ‘top hand.’ Meeting the high expectations of his father is difficult enough, without the enmity expressed by Fred, the old cow boss, who seems to hate him. His Great Idea of roping a ground squirrel takes a disastrous turn that results in big trouble for him and good-natured teasing from all the cowboys in the bunkhouse. Hoping to help Ben get back into the good graces of both his father and Fred, these working ‘buckaroos’ teach him some old-time western skills that will help him take responsibility for the trouble he has caused. Ben grows up very quickly when he’s put in a position where only he can save Fred’s life, earning the respect he craves from everyone on the ranch. This book accurately portrays an American subculture: ranch life in the Great Basin of the United States. Here, cowboy culture and practices reflect the strong influence of the Spanish vaquero traditions of the Old West. Customs and terms specific to this area and still in use today are defined in a glossary in the back of the book. The Orange Slipknot was a finalist for Foreword Magazine's 2007 Book of the Year Award and Bronze Medal Winner of the MoonBeam Award in 2008. The Moonbeam Children’s Book Awards from Independent Publishers Group are designed to bring increased recognition to exemplary children’s books and their creators, and to support childhood literacy and life-long reading. The Moonbeam Awards recognize and reward the best of these books and bring them to the attention of parents, booksellers, librarians – and to children themselves. Author Jan Young received a BA in Behavioral Science from Pacific University in Fresno, CA before going on to study writing with the Institute of Children’s Literature. Experience and knowledge for this book came in part by living with her husband and two sons in the ranching community in Humboldt County, Nevada for many years. She has many publishing credits for both fiction and nonfiction articles and short stories. This is her first novel.