The Darkest Evening by William Durbin

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In the early 1930s, Russian recruiters visited Finnish-American communities all across the northern United States and Canada and convinced some 6,000 North American Finns to migrate to the province of Karelia, Russia. Motivated by political idealism, the spirit of adventure, and the promise of full employment and free education, the Finns willingly sold their possessions and boarded ships for Russia. This novel tells the story of one family who set out on that bold journey. Jake Maki's life is turned upside down when his dad decides to move their family to the Soviet Union. His father thinks that they will be living in a worker's paradise, but when they arrive, they find only disappointment and danger.

Kizzy Ann Stamps by Jeri Watts

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"Dear Miss Anderson, My teacher, Mrs. Warren, says I have to write to you, and when Mrs. Warren says to do something, you do it. She has taught at the black school for thirty-seven years. My daddy does what she says, the preacher does what she says, and you’d better believe I do what she says. And she said that in the spirit of working together, all us black kids should write you letters over the summer so you can get to know us a bit before we start at the white school in September."

This is the first part of the first letter Kizzy Ann Stamps writes to her new teacher. She’ll be one of the first students to go to an integrated school – one where black and white children go to school together and she isn’t sure what to expect. She does know that with her loyal border collie Shag by her side she can face anything.

Turtle in Paradise by Jennifer L. Holm

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"Everyone thinks kids are as sweet as Necco Wafers, but I've lived long enough to know the truth: kids are rotten.  The only difference between grown-ups and kids is that grown-ups go to jail for murder.  Kids get away with it."

Necco Wafers are a candy that have been around since 1847.  They were popular during the Great Depression because they only cost a penny – which most folks could afford.  Turtle lives during the Great Depression and when her mama gets a job as a housekeeper for a woman who doesn’t like kids, Turtle is sent to Key West Florida to live with relative she’s never met before.  Florida isn’t anything like she thought it would be and before she knows what’s happening, she finds herself coming out of the shell she’s spent her life building.

Echo by Pam Muñoz Ryan

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When you play a harmonica, you breathe in and out, just as you would to keep your body alive and this is what makes a harmonica magical.  As you play it, you breathe into it your strength and vision and knowledge for the next person who plays this mouth organ.  In Echo, a special harmonica is passed from one hand to the next in a magical journey that takes 18 years.

A Family Apart by Joan Lowery Nixon

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Imagine what you would do if your mother told you that she knew she couldn’t give you the life you deserve and so was going to put you on a train to find a better life with another family.  What would you do?  That was something that actually happened in the 1800s.  Thousands of orphaned, abandoned or homeless children were put on the Orphan Train to be adopted by western families who were looking for children to love or cheap labor.  This book is about Frances Mary and her brothers and sisters and their quest to reunite after they’re split up on the orphan train.

The War that Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

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Ada has never been outside in her entire life.  Her mother, embarrassed by Ada’s twisted foot, keeps her trapped inside their apartment.  When war comes to London, Ada’s mother sends her brother Jamie away to the countryside to keep him safe, and intends to keep Ada locked inside.  But Ada has other plans.