Books in Chaparral Books series

For decades, a riot that killed three hundred people and wounded hundreds of others was scarcely heard of. But several new studies have focused attention on Tulsa's Greenwood race riot of 1921. In If We Must Die novelist Pat Carr turns that tragedy into a riveting novel. When Berneen O'Brien's mother dies, the seventeen-year-old moves from Wyoming to Tulsa to live with her stern uncle. Berneen secures a teaching position at Liberty Elementary School. When she meets the principal, Nelson Flowers, she is amazed to find that he is a black man. Slowly, as she meets the other teachers, Berneen realizes that she is teaching in a black school. Her worries about being an outcast soon disappear, as the other teachers make her welcome. Berneen, who is of Black-Irish descent, doesn't realize that the teachers and students all assume she is also black. At school and after hours Berneen finds herself moving in the world of the segregated Greenwood neighborhood. And she finds herself increasingly drawn to Nelson Flowers. Racial tension erupts into violence when a young white girl accuses a black shoeshine boy of raping her in an office-building elevator. Whites burn Greenwood and storm the neighborhood, shooting and beating black men, women, and children. Berneen is trapped in the school with Nelson Flowers and the teachers when the mob approaches. The story of their desperate attempt to escape is realistic and frightening, made more so by its historical accuracy. This novel is both insightful and a real page-turner.

When fifteen-year-old Christina Eudora Von Scholl learns that her family will leave their German homeland to seek freedom in Texas, her greatest sorrow is leaving behind her beloved grandmother. And so, in a series of letters, she takes “Oma” on this great adventure with her family . . . and takes us as readers. Sometimes the letters are dark with discouragement, for the Von Scholls find, as did many German-Texas families, that the Society for the Protection of German Emigrants, known as the Adelsverein, was unable to fulfill its promises of land, housing, horses, and farm implements. But they are Germans, determined and willing to work hard. More often these letters—and the text woven in between them—are bright with adventure, for Tina finds Texas an exciting, if puzzling, place. There are new customs to learn, new foods to eat, even while the family preserves its traditional German ways. Tina’s adventures include a run-in with a mountain lion, an exciting trip across Texas with her father to Sisterdale, and a frightening encounter with Lipan Indians. Her lessons in being an American are helped by Jeff, a young man who becomes part of the family when he undertakes to teach them to farm in Texas. Tina, in return, teaches Jeff to read and learns a lesson in love that is without nationality. Letters to Oma is a charming, informative novel that sweeps the reader back to a very particular time and place. And Tina Von Scholl is irresistible as correspondent and as heroine.

On the coldest day in Texas—February 12, 1899—Shyanne Jones and her twin sister, Shenandoah, are snowbound in their schoolhouse in the Panhandle, along with the teacher—Shyanne’s adored Miss Gibson—and Josh Paul Younger, the cutest boy in the county. Before rescuers can dig them out, Shenandoah’s frail heart is weakened by the severe temperature. Gravely ill, she whispers her only wish.Bracing against the storm, Josh Paul and Miss Gibson cut the one tree within miles to grant her wish, and the four celebrate Christmas ten months early. When Shenandoah dies, Shyanne bitterly regrets the harsh last words her sister ever heard from her. Shyanne’s father, having lost his property in the Civil War, drowns his sorrows in drink, and after Shenandoah’s death, deserts the family. Then, to Shyanne’s disgust, her mother makes her annual announcement—another baby is on the way. It will be the eighth child in the family. Guilt over Shenandoah’s death, a nervous stomach around Josh Paul that can only mean love, and rivalry with snippy Priscilla Babcock, the town’s rich girl, all combine to make Shyanne unhappy and pessimistic. Will she have to quit school and take care of her brothers so her mother can work, or worse, move to her grandmother’s house and become a lady? Or could Josh Paul be right? Do miracles happen and is there really a happy-ever-after? The Coldest Day in Texas is alive with excitement and drama, from a blizzard to a prairie fire, reunion picnics and a great jackrabbit hunt to a wagon-trip to the Palo Duro Canyon, from the death of one child to the birth of another. And Shyanne Jones is one of the spunkiest girls ever to race through the adventures of growing up in the Texas Panhandle.

From 1900 until 1917, the Jewish population of Texas more than doubled, from 15,000 to over 31,000. Many who immigrated through the Port of Galveston had an opportunity to bypass the difficult tenement experiences of the East, but a new life in the American West offered challenges of its own. The Treasure in the Tiny Blue Tin is based on the experiences of those immigrants.When twelve-year-old Max Miller immigrates to America with his mother and sister in 1912, he wants only to be together with his family and forget the old country where they were persecuted for being Jewish and where his two brothers died. The family lives above Max’s uncle’s store, and Max, on a treasured new bicycle, makes deliveries for his uncle. Not at all a typical Texan, Max likes to go to school, doesn’t know how to swim or fish and is afraid of horses, completely the opposite of Joe Hollis, the blacksmith’s son, who taunts Max about being Jewish and a greenhorn.When his papa, a peddler, doesn’t come home for Passover, Max fears he may be a victim of an outbreak of meningitis. Max decides to ride his bicycle in search of his father, and his journey leads over flooded creeks and unfamiliar territory. Joe follows him out of town and joins him on his journey. The two boys learn to understand each other and become fast friends as they survive the perils of wilderness Texas.The Treasure in the Tiny Blue Tin is filled with action and inspiring courage. Always mindful of following Jewish beliefs and customs, Max is determined to bring his father home safely and share the joy and hope of being in America.The Treasure in the Tiny Blue Tin won the 1993 Sydney Taylor Award presented by the Association of Jewish Librarians.

Billy Bardin and the Witness Tree is the account of a boy’s quest to save an important piece of Arlington, Texas, history and in the process convince his recently widowed grandfather how important he really is.The novel is based on the real efforts to save the Witness Tree in 1991. Billy Bardin’s quest begins when K-Mart plans to develop a shopping center at the site of the five-hundred-year-old tree. As Billy studies the tree’s history for a school assignment, his grandfather tells him about his career laying out roads and racetracks as a surveyor. Grandpa shows Billy his beautiful old brass transit, the instrument he used to survey land, and explains how the Witness Tree was the point from which all property in Arlington was measured. Billy’s mother inadvertently gives the transit to a church rummage sale, and Billy sets off to recover it, save the tree, and restore Grandpa’s dignity.

Fourteen-year-old Cat Jennings lives—and works—on a hardscrabble farm outside Bastrop, Texas, with her parents, an older brother Charlie, and three younger children—Holly, Benjie, and Susanna. But her father has gone to fight at the Alamo, and Charlie has left to join him. When Cat learns that the Alamo has fallen with no survivors, she takes off on horseback to ride across South Texas and urge volunteers to join Sam Houston’s army. She soon runs into Johnny Jenkins, who is both her nemesis and her first love. Johnny is on his way to join Houston, even though Cat tells him he’s too young. As she rides from cabin to cabin, Cat meets fascinating characters, like the gentle widow Polly who won’t believe that her son died at the Alamo. And she has near misses with a Mexican brigade and roughnecks who try to kidnap her. Disguised as a boy, she runs into the Texian army—only to find that they are retreating! She also finds Charlie and Johnny with Houston, but when she wants to leave for home, General Houston won’t allow it. So Cat joins the Runaway Scrape and follows Houston and his army to San Jacinto, arguing all the way with Johnny and Charlie, who think Houston is a coward for retreating and cruel for burning the towns he marches through. Cat argues that he is the hero who will save Texas. According to her great-granddaughter, the real Catherine Jennings did make such a ride after her father, Gordon Jennings, was killed at the Alamo. The rest of this story is fiction based on historical research.