Civil War Historical Fiction
Middle Grade
Series nominated for the 2012 Great Michigan Read.
Awarded two Readers’ Favorite 5 Star Seals.
Newly revised and updated (2025).
Likened to the rich literary style of Ann Rinaldi but with its own twist of adventure, The Divided Decade series wraps American history in exciting, kid-pleasing packages. Find out why so many teachers have incorporated this Civil War historical fiction series into classrooms across America. Lesson plans and additional resources are available for each.
The Candle Star
Runaways hidden in the barn. Slave catchers lodged in the hotel. And Emily caught in the middle.
Emily Preston has defied her parents one too many times, and they expel her from their plantation home. Forced to travel to Detroit, she’s sentenced to a year’s labor in her Uncle Isaac’s hotel.
In retaliation, Emily has vowed to become the most disagreeable houseguest ever, but she didn’t figure in her uncle’s iron will. And she has no idea what to do with Malachi Watson, the son of freed slaves who challenges every idea she’s grown up believing.
When Emily stumbles across two runaways hidden in her uncle’s barn, Malachi requests her help to sneak them across the river to Canada. Meanwhile, Mr. Burrows, the charming Southern slave catcher, lodges in the hotel.
Fans of Ann Rinaldi will appreciate The Candle Star’s strong female protagonist, meticulous historical detail, and rich literary style.
Download The Candle Star today and experience the past through the exciting lens of historical fiction.
Blood of Pioneers
The farm Hannah wanted so desperately to leave she will now risk her safety to save.
Hannah Wallace craves excitement, but all local adventures dried up long ago, when her parents unpacked their wagon on the Michigan frontier. Then war breaks out, and her father and brother leave to fight the Confederacy.
Stuck at home, Hannah chafes under the boredom of never-ending chores as she struggles to keep the farm running. But the bills mount, hail damages the wheat crop, and the bank loan comes due.
Then an unscrupulous speculator sets his sights on the unmanned farm. To save it, Hannah must make the twenty-mile trip to Allegan to sell her father’s best horse—alone.
Beneath the Slashings
To save the lives of the men in camp, Grace must place her own in danger.
(Slashings—n. Broken branches, splintered trunks, and debris left on the ground after lumbering: The slashings lay strewn about like casualties of war, cold, gray and skeletal.)
Grace Nickerson’s life has been shattered by four years of war. She’s desperate to return to a sense of normalcy, but soon after her father returns, he sells the farm and drags the family to a lumber camp in Michigan’s northern wilderness.
Put to work in the primitive kitchen—unpaid—she allows anger to drive a painful wedge between herself and her father. She’s intimidated by the rough loggers and hard-bitten soldiers, and living in close quarters causes tempers to flare.
Then a series of accidents proves intentional, and Hannah is convinced her father arrested the wrong man. But exposing the real killer means interfering in a clan war.
Divided Decade Boxed Set
Read at a discount! Includes all three books in the Divided Decade Collection, newly revised and updated in 2025.