My Name Is America Books

The Civil War JOURNAL OF JAMES EDMOND PEASE is now in paperback with an exciting repackaging!Ignorant to the bitter realities of military life, 16-year-old James enlists in the Union Army at the dawn of the Civil War. When his lieutenant assigns him to be the company historian of the G Company of the 122nd Regiment, New York Volunteers, he is initially at a loss as to what exactly he is supposed to record. As the days pass, James settles into his role, but he cannot take comfort in it. His country is divided by a bloody war, and his unit struggles through the hardships and turmoil. Through his journal entries, James poignantly captures the terror of battle, the drudgery of day-to-day life in the infantry, the loss of comrades, and the disillusionment of a young soldier.

The Revolutionary War JOURNAL OF WILLIAM THOMAS EMERSON is now in paperback with an exciting repackaging!On an early summer morning in 1774, William Emerson, on the run from his abusive foster parents, awakens to a dusty-faced stranger who has discovered his roadside bed. After hearing the boy's story, Mr. John Wilson--a writer for and organizer of the revolutionary cause--invites Will to accompany him into Boston. From that day forward, Will lives and works at the Seven Stars Tavern, gradually earning the trust of the colonial patriots who spend their time there. Through listening to tavern talk and closely observing Mr. Wilson, Will begins to grasp the importance of the colonial cause. But when conflicts between the citizens of colonial Boston and the British lobsterbacks escalate, Will is confronted with an impossible question--how much is he willing to sacrifice for the revolution and the freedom of his fellow citizens? In the pages of his diary, Will captures the patriotic spirit of the revolutionary period and the camaraderie that comes with fighting for a common cause.

In 1871 Joshua Loper, a sixteen-year-old Black cowboy, records in his journal his experiences while making his first cattle drive under an unsympathetic trail boss

Newbery and Coretta Scott King award-winning author Walter Dean Myers's the WWII JOURNAL OF SCOTT PENDLETON COLLINS is now available in paperback, with an exciting repackaging!Following in the footsteps of his father and great-grandfather, both war veterans, Scott Pendleton Collins signs up for the army during the height of World War II. He is shipped out to England only to face weeks of boredom. He and his unit want to be out in the fields, doing something to help the Allied forces. Finally, the comrades find themselves on a boat heading to Normandy, France, in the dead of night. But as his boat approaches the beach, Scott suddenly realizes what they are up against, and it is an impossible invasion. Nothing in basic training, nothing he's heard from other soldiers, nothing he has ever experienced prepares Scott for what awaits on Omaha Beach. As D-Day rages around him, Scott is separated from his unit. Lost in the bloody chaos, he must find a way to live through the battle. Revolving around one of the most famous invasions in history, Scott's story is one of bravery and victory, heartache and pain, loss and survival.

The feelings and experiences of a young boy forced to live in a Japanese internment camp during World War II is presented in this diary-style format for middle readers. 90,000 first printing.

In 1867, fifteen-year-old Sean experiences both hardships and rewards when he joins his father in working on the building of the Transcontinental Rairoad

November 11, 1620 I am so weary, yet I must write, I have been ashore!...We walked a while along the beach, carefully at first because the elders were looking for the tracks of cloven feet to see if the Evil One was here. How strange it was to cast an eye to the nearby forest and not know what manner of beast was watching and might lunge out at us...Here in this place there are endless trees. We wonder, how far do they go on? I think forever, Tom. I think everything in this place goes on forever. I think that we have found Forever.

In 1905 fifteen-year-old Otto describes in his journal how he travels from Finland to America, joining his father in a dreary iron mining community in Minnesota and becoming involved in a union fight for better working conditions.

Newbery Honor author Kathryn Lasky's exciting JOURNAL OF AUGUSTUS PELLETIER is now in paperback with a dynamic repackaging! Fourteen-year-old Augustus, half French, half Omaha Indian, sets out to proof himself worthy of Lewis and Clark on their great adventure of discovery. He follows the explorers for two hundred miles before making his presence known to the commanding captain of the Corps of Discovery, Meriwether Lewis, himself. Gus's ability to read and write makes him useful to the explorers, and he starts to keep a record of their travels. But traveling west isn't easy, and the company faces constant danger. Is Augustus a tough enough explorer to survive such hardships?

From Douglas Allen Deeds' journal November 6 The Breens and I were lucky. We've found refuge in a deserted cabin that may have been built some ago by a fur trapper. The cabin is very crude... There holes in the roof. The stove is broke, but it is a great improvement on being outside. Outside where the storm rages, and the wind screams through the mountaintops and over the lake. Outside where the last few cattle are dying almost without complaint, as if grateful the end is near. Soon we will eat the frozen cattle... And then, when that is gone, what shall we eat? Shall we eat snow? Shall we eat the ice? Shall we eat the bark on the frozen trees? What shall we eat?

Newbery and Coretta Scott King award-winning author Walter Dean Myers's baseball story THE JOURNAL OF BIDDY OWENS is now available in paperback, with an exciting repackaging!Seventeen-year-old Biddy Owens is part of the Birmingham Black Barons baseball team and dreams of becoming a major league baseball player. However, in 1948 most black players can only play for the Negro Leagues. Jackie Robinson has just recently integrated and is playing for the Brooklyn Dodgers, but the white owners are reluctant to add too many blacks to their rosters. The Birmingham Black Barons are some of the best players in the league. But as they travel around playing ball, Biddy realizes that not everyone is ready for blacks and whites to play on the same team. Can Biddy prove he's good enough to be part of the game his loves, no matter what color his skin is?

Critically acclaimed author Joseph Bruchac's exciting JOURNAL OF JESSE SMOKE is now in paperback with a dynamic repackaging! In 1838 in Tennessee, the Cherokee Nation is on the brink of being changed forever as they face the Removal -- being forcibly moved from their homes and land, in part because of a treaty signed by a group of their own people. Sixteen-year-old Jesse Smoke has been studying at the Mission School, but it has been shut down and turned into a fort for the ever-increasing number of soldiers entering the territory. Now Jesse has returned to his home to live with his widowed mother and two younger sisters. All hope lies on the Cherokee chief, John Ross, who is in Washington, D.C., trying to delay the Removal. Then one night, family members are suddenly awakened, dragged from their homes, and brought at gunpoint to a stockade camp. From there, Jesse and his family are forced to march westward on the horrifying Trail of Tears during the long, cold winter months. It's a difficult journey west, and Jesse's not sure if he and his family can survive the journey.

In another compelling entry from criticially-acclaimed author William Durbin, we meet C.J. Jackson, a young farmer whose family is forced to abandon their farm and seek a new life in California. April 10, 1935 The dust has been blowing bad for several years in a row now. And with crop failures coming back to back like they have, hundreds of families have lost their farms. A Monday never passes without Sheriff Jake Allison posting a notice of foreclosure at the Boise City courthouse. Times are so rough, that when they hold an auction to sell a place, the only people that show up are the banks and the insurance companies. Nobody else has a nickel. C.J. Jackson is a young man living through one of the most tragic times in the Dust Bowl of an America fraught with political, economic, and environmental problems. In this intense journal of life in the Oklahoma panhandle, C.J. tells it like it is-and it is bad.

The Vietnam War journal of Patrick Seamus Flaherty is now available in paperback, with an exciting repackaging!Determined to do his duty for his country, Patrick Seamus Flaherty joins the Marines right after graduation to fight in the Vietnam War. But Southeast Asia is a far cry from Patrick's hometown of Boston, and as soon as he arrives, he realizes that he's made a terrible mistake.Confronted with oppressive heat, dense jungles, and an enemy that is everywhere, Patrick is overwhelmed by life on the battlefield. With the help of his comrades, Patrick slowly starts to find a way to deal with the harsh realities he faces. But under constant assault by the North Vietnamese, Patrick isn't sure he'll ever make it home again, and as the months drag on, he and his unit question whether they're actually making a difference. Writing in the journal his father gave him before shipping out, Patrick brings Khe Sanh to vivid life through the smells, tastes, sounds, horrors, loneliness, and the friendships that are so much of the chaos called war.

Orphaned after losing his parents in a rafting accident, Jedediah Barstow must find the courage to follow his family's dream westward along the Oregon Trail. Having lost his parents and younger sister when they tried to ford a river along the Oregon Trail, Jedediah Barstow decides to make his way to the Oregon Territory on his own. He is "adopted" by the Henshaw family, who allow him to travel in their wagon in exchange for his help with the daily maintenance work along the way. Jedediah's adventures, along with the friends he makes and the lessons he learns, make for an unforgettable story of a brave young boy who sets off to discover a wild, new world.

When his father dies, Finn Reardon must support his family by selling newspapers on the streets of Manhattan, where he finds himself in the middle of the Newsie Strike of 1899. When Finn Reardon's father dies, he decides to support his mother and eight siblings by peddling newspapers on the streets corners of New York City. But when the two biggest newspaper publishers, Hearst and Pulitzer, raise the wholesale price that Finn and his friends pay for the papers they sell, the boys band together and go on strike. Susan Campbell Bartoletti brings humor and wit to this classic David and Goliath struggle between the Newsies and the newspaper publishers.

Acclaimed author Sid Hite brings the drama of the Civil War to life through the eyes of Rufus Rowe, a Confederate boy. Sixteen-year-old Rufus Rowe runs away from home, to escape his cruel stepfather. He finds work and shelter in Fredericksburg, Virginia, just as the Rebel troops begin to amass in preparation for a confrontation with the Union Army. Rufus befriends several Confederate officers, who do not believe the Confederate army can be beaten, and sensitively observes and records the gripping battle that takes place there.

Brian Doyle has run away from home, fleeing his father’s hot temper. When he signs on as a sailor on an Alaskan whaling ship, Brian finds more adventure and danger on the high seas than any boy could imagine, and discovers himself along the way.

Newbery Honor author Laurence Yep's incredible JOURNAL OF WONG MING-CHUNG is now in paperback with a stunning repackaging! In 1852, during the height of the California Gold Rush, ten-year-old Wong makes the dangerous trip to America to live with his uncle, exchanging the famine and war of his native country for brutal bullies and grueling labor in America, Wong joins his uncle and countless others in the effort to strike it rich on the great "Golden Mountain." Unfortunately, he, and most of the rest of the dreamers, soon discover that there's no such thing as a Golden Mountain, only dirt, mud, and occasionally tiny flecks of gold dust--flecks that are to be turned over to the owners of the mines, in return for barely livable wages. However, someone as clever and resourceful as Wong will have to find other ingenious ways of making money if they're going to make it in America. But can they overcome the bitter, racist white Americans to find success?