It's late summer 1793, and a deadly fever has struck Philadelphia. Fourteen-year-old Mattie Cook is too busy helping her family run their coffee shop to pay much attention to the mounting deaths, until the fever begins to strike closer to home, and Mattie and her family must fight to stay alive.  (M,J)

Raised by a group of rational philosophers known only by numbers, Octavian and his mother — a princess in exile from a faraway land — are the only persons in their household assigned names. Dressed in silks and given the finest of classical educations, it is only after he dares to open a forbidden door that he learns the hideous nature of their experiments — and his own chilling role in them.  (S)

Saxso is fourteen when the British soldiers attack his Canadian village. It is the year 1759, and war is raging between the British and the French, with the Abenaki people-Saxso's people-by their side. In fact, most of the men of Saxso's village are away looking for the British elsewhere on the day of the attack. There aren't enough people home to put up a proper defense, and the village is destroyed. Many people are killed and some are taken hostage, including Saxso's own mother and two younger sisters. It's up to Saxso, on his own, to track the raiders and bring his family back home.  (M,J)

All his life, Tim Meeker has looked up to his brother Sam. Sam's smart and brave -- and is now a part of the American Revolution. Not everyone in town wants to be a part of the rebellion. Most are supporters of the British - including Tim and Sam's father. With the war soon raging, Tim know he'll have to make a choice - between the Revolutionaries and the Redcoats...and between his brother and his father.  (M,J)

Set against the French Revolution, fourteen-year-old Gypsy orphan Yann Margoza's encounter with a shy heiress, twelve-year-old Sido, changes his life. Yann, and the dwarf who has raised him are caught up in drama on and off the stage when the magician is murdered by the villainous Count Kalliovski. So begins a finely crafted tale that crosses years and crisscrosses countries, as Yann becomes a young man with a mission: to save the lovely Sido from her heartless father, even as he struggles with the extraordinary gifts bestowed upon him by his Gypsy heritage.  (M,J,S)

In 1791, after being transported to Australia in the first shipment of convicts, Mary Bryant, her husband, two children, and seven other convicts, unable to endure the terrible conditions of the penal colony, organize a daring escape in an open boat.  (J,S)

Weak-one, a Crow Indian girl sets out from her tribe to prove that she, not her dead twin brother, is the Great One. Along the way, she survives beingscalded by a geyser and attacked by a bear before she is captured by a band of Pawnee. At the Pawnee camp, Weak-one is befriended by a revered Pawnee boy, Wolfstar. Through him she learns true friendship and trust, only to find that the tribe intends to use her as a human sacrifice in one of their rituals.  (M,J)

Nancy Kington, a wealthy merchant’s daughter living in Bristol, England in the early 1700’s, is sometimes lonely but enjoys the privileges her father’s business brings. Minerva Sharpe is a penniless slave’s daughter living and working on the Kington’s Jamaican plantation. These two young women, united through a set of extraordinary circumstances including a brutal murder, an arranged marriage, and set of ruby earrings, find themselves sailing the high seas in search of love, adventure and freedom—as pirates!  (J,S)

Sarah Henry, wife of the famous statesman Patrick Henry, is losing her mind, and she's secretly being kept in the cellar because she is a danger to herself and her children. Daughter Anne has a secret, too. She knows which child will inherit Sarah's madness, and she'll pay any price to protect her siblings from this information.  (M,J,S)

It's 1735 and Forrest Harper's life inside the Tower of London consists of three ways to pass the time: chores, chores, and more chores. His only friends are the spirited ravens he tends with his father. So when vicious Scottish Rebels are captured, Forrest can't wait to prove himself by standing guard. If only Forrest's prisoner hadn't turned out to be the noble and daring Maddy. And if only Maddy wasn't about to be executed. Now, as Forrest chooses between friendship and family, safety and escape, he and Maddy must flee, somehow navigating the cold, dank corridors of the Tower.  (M)