Books in Living History Library series

Two cultures, two faiths, struggle against each other in this exciting story by Madeleine Polland. You can almost hear the clash of arms and taste the Great Hall feasts in this authentic recreation of 9th century Europe, when Viking raiders ravaged the coasts of Ireland. Amid the battles and shipwrecks and deeds of bravery and treachery, twelve-year-old Beorn learns Christian humility from his young captive, Ness, the daughter of an Irish chieftain.Illustrated by Joan Coppa Drennen.

In 1360 AD, King Magnus Eirikson rules over a united Sweden and Norway a Christian Scandinavia. Dark rumor has reached the king that the colonies in Greenland have fallen back into pagan ritual, along with an alarming report that the inhabitants of the Western Settlement have mysteriously disappeared, with farmsteads and churches left deserted. Magnus entrusts Paul Knutson with a ship and forty strong men to make contact with Greenland and to verify the truth of these stories. Among these men are Olav Sigurdsson a young man sailing to prove his bravery to the king and to reclaim his father s lost honor and Eirik the Laplander, deeply loyal to Olav s family, but a pagan viewed with suspicion by the other Christian Scandinavians. Upon confirming the disappearance of a whole settlement, Paul and his party follow a sparse trail of clues south across the seas toward Vinland convinced that some of the colonists may still be alive. As the valiant band perseveres in the pursuit of answers for its king, going ever deeper south and westward into an unknown continent, Olav s desire for justice for his father finally merges with the desire for success in their difficult quest. The Door to the North is another stirring example of Elizabeth Coatsworth s authentic and captivating historical storytelling.

Amidst great mystery, Hugh is left in the care of Glastonbury Abbey by his father who must flee England too swiftly to be burdened by a crippled son. Ashamed of his physical weakness, yet possessed of a stout heart, Hugh finds that life at the abbey is surprisingly full in this year 1171, in the turbulent days of King Henry II. Hugh, his friend Dickon and their strange friend, the mad Bleheris, uncover a treasure trove and with it a deeper mystery of the sort that could only occur in Glastonbury where Joseph of Arimithea was said to have lived out his last years. Before all is done, more is resolved than Hugh could ever have hoped. A Newbery Honor winner. Illustrated by Frederick Chapman.

"A tale that is not told dies." So say the old Irish storytellers. How much better when the story, like this one about the fighting prince of Donegal, is true! It is 1587 and Queen Elizabeth plans to bring Ireland under her iron rule. Only one thing is stopping her: Warrior queen Ineen Duive and her young son, Hugh Roe O'Donnell. Carefree and proud, young Hugh grows up quickly after he is betrayed to the English and taken to Birmingham Tower as a hostage. Can he escape? If so, can he escape in time to aid the Irish struggle against the English? Facts as exciting as fiction abound in this authentic portrayal of a glorious moment in Irish history.

British airman Dym Ingleford is convinced that the young German prisoner, Max Eckermann, is his brother Anthony who was kidnapped years before. Raised in the Nazi ideology, Tony has by chance tumbled into British hands. Dym has brought him back, at least temporarily, to the family he neither remembers nor will acknowledge as his own. As Tony keeps attempting to escape, his stubborn anger is whittled away by the patient kindness he finds at the White Priory. Then, just as he is resigning himself to stay with this English family, a new chance suddenly opens for him to return home-to Germany!

Twelve-year-old Chico Filippo, whose own donkeys were confiscated years before by the German army, can't stay away from the newly set up American Remount Depot. Here, in the last months of World War II in Italy, thousands of supply mules and donkeys are processed and sent on to the fierce mountain fighting in the Apennines. One of the handlers introduces Chico to a small courageous animal the boy names Sergeant Donkey. Drawn into friendship and then into unexpected danger, Chico must demonstrate his own simple courage.

Mystery surrounds the young peasant boy known as Big John. Raised during the strife-filled days of the reign of King John of England, his life is one day changed when a knight says, in passing, “You remind me of someone—someone I once knew and loved.” It is from “Old Marm,” the herb woman, that John understands that injustice has been done his family. Though never telling him the family name lest he unwittingly betray himself, she does all she can to prepare him to one day reclaim his name and family honor. Then Old Marm dies, and John is left without a clue to his identity. In the next years John’s unusual size and strength and the knowledge he has gained of letters and of the art of healing earn him a place as page to an earl organizing the 5th Crusade. In the Holy Land John searches for a father he hopes is living still. Amidst battle, capture and setbacks, John—now a squire to a Knight Hospitaller—encounters Francis of Assisi, who had come to the Holy Land just at this time to preach the Gospel to the Saracens. It is another meeting that changes the course of Big John’s life. .

Friendship springs up between a boy who has lost his voice and his mother at the same tragic moment, and an ailing albino deer sent from China as a gift to the King of Spain. It is Lalo's task to nurture the deer back to health so that he will be well enough for the voyage to Spain. This story of Mexico in 1630 follows young Lalo on his journey back to the Mountain of the Sleeping Lady. By the Newbery Award-winning author of My Heart Lies South. Ages 9 and up

*** Child Study Association Book of the Year Award Winner ***An epic historical adventure that takes young readers from The Boston Massacre to the Battle of Bunker Hill...The year is 1769, and wealthy merchant John Treegate is a solid citizen of Boston, who is loyal to his British King. John has taught his eleven-year-old son Peter to be loyal too, and wanting nothing more than his father's approval, Peter always does as told.But when his father is called back to England on business, Peter is left behind and apprenticed to a maker of barrel staves. Alone and feeling abandoned, Peter experiences the hardships of Boston's working class citizens for the first time.When Peter is framed for murder and with no father at home to protect him, Peter is forced to flee Boston on a smuggler's brig, sending him on a series of adventures on the high seas and across the untamed lands of the Carolinas that will challenge everything his father ever taught him to believe about England, America, and the impending Revolutionary War..."Of all the wars of which I have knowledge, I believe that none was as important for the Western World as the War of the American Revolution. Indeed, I regard it as the most important struggle in the history of Western Man."--Leonard WibberleyJohn Treegate's Musket is the first in a seven-book series, which makes a great companion to study the Revolutionary War era.Recommended reading in the Seton Home Study Guide for Grade 8.THE TREEGATE BOOK SERIES:Book 1: John Treegate's MusketBook 2: Peter Treegate's WarBook 3: Sea Captain from SalemBook 4: Treegate's RaidersBook 5: Leopard's PreyBook 6: Manly Treegate Frontiersman (formerly titled Red Pawns)Book 7: The Last BattleEach book in the series is complete to itself and can be enjoyed if read in any order. However, for greatest reading pleasure, it's recommended that the books be read in sequence.The acclaimed seven-book series chronicling the adventures of the generations of the Treegate family from the birth of the Revolutionary War through the War of 1812, ending at the Battle of New Orleans is also available in a 7-Book Bundle exclusively on Kindle.

Sun Slower, Sun Faster Meriol Trevor This is an adventure story with a difference—it is soon after World War II, and Cecil (short for Cecilia) along with her cousin, Rickie, are thrown into a series of adventures that have little to do with the England that they know. Inexplicably, they and their eccentric tutor, Dominic, find themselves in another time. With every dip into time they experience another chapter of the Church’s history and teachings. At once fun and frightening, these escapades into the past take on deeper and deeper significance. Each of them are faced with things from their own pasts which touch deeply upon who they are in the present and who they will choose to be in the uncertain but tantalizing future. Illustrated by Edward Ardizzone. Ages 10 & up