Katherine Paterson

Young and feisty Gilly Hopkins devises a scheme to escape from her new foster home and reunite with her birth mother.

Jesse Aarons trained all summer to become the fastest runner in school. So he's very upset when newcomer Leslie Burke outruns him and everyone else. Despite this and other differences including that she's rich, he's poor, she's a city girl, and he's a country boy the two become fast friends. Together they create Terabithia, a land of monsters, trolls, ogres, and giants where they rule as king and queen.

Lyddie faces a daunting task: She's struggling to reunite her family and save their farm. To do that, she takes a job at a cotton mill and, with the help of Diana (who's toiled in the mills since age 10), learns that there are risks involved with being a factory girl -- namely, dangerous working conditions and low wages. Soon, Lyddie finds herself in the forefront of a suffrage movement to better those appalling conditions.

In the early 1940s, a depressed young woman, who's been eclipsed all of her life by her beautiful twin sister, tries to overcome her low self-esteem with help from a crusty old sea captain.

Jess Aarons and new girl Leslie Burke create a world of their own and call it Terabithia and pretend to be the king and queen. They return to their magical kingdom every day after school.