Maleeka is in seventh grade.  She has African-American classmates, but one boy, especially, makes fun of her because of her exceptionally dark skin. Because of her insecurity, Maleeka works her way into a clique of girls who try to bully the other girls in class.  The clique is lead by Charlese, who is especially cruel and heartless in the way she treats others. 

Charlese makes fun of the homemade clothes made for Maleeka by her recently widowed mother.  Charlese keeps Maleeka under her domination by bringing expensive clothes to school most days, so that Maleeka can dress the way she thinks she needs to dress in order to be popular. 

A new teacher of English, who is also African-American, turns up in the school.  Miss Saunders is different from other teachers.  As a businesswoman, she had been highly successful in public relations. In a career change, she had decided to try her hand at being a teacher.  She is extremely self-assured and demanding of the students in her classes. She wears designer label clothes and stands out among the other teachers because of her wardrobe.  However, she has blotches on her face as a result of a rare skin condition.  It is readily apparent to Maleeka that Miss Saunders doesn’t let her unusual skin cause her to be insecure.

In spite of Miss Saunders’ efforts to help Maleeka, Maleeka rebels and joins with Charlese to get into all kinds of trouble in school. As Charlese struggles to maintain control of Maleeka, she comes to confront Miss Saunders more and more.  In the story, the main conflict is whether the evil and selfish Charlese or the caring Miss Saunders will finally have the most impact on Maleeka’s behavior. 

Toward the end of the story, it looks like evil has won out and that Maleeka has really ruined any chances she has for a good future.  In the very end, though, Maleeka does find out what it means to respect one’s self and to stop letting others dictate how one thinks and acts.   She realizes that she really is a beautiful and unique young woman.
 
 

Imagine a huge, black dog that loves water and can understand people’s speech.  When hardly more than a pup, this beautiful Newfoundland dog, named Seaman, is purchased from a cruel owner by Captain Meriwether Lewis. Captain Lewis is preparing to lead a historic expedition to explore the new lands west of the Mississippi.  He and his partner, William Clark, as ordered by President Thomas Jefferson, are to find out everything they can about the land just acquired from France in what was called “The Louisiana Purchase.”

The book is titled, “The Captain’s Dog,” and is a 287 page paperback novel.  Each chapter begins with a small section from the actual journal kept by Meriwether Lewis.  The events from the journal serve to prod Seaman to tell his dog’s eye view of what went on during that part of the expedition. 

Since he is a dog, Seaman cannot speak to the humans on the trip, although he can understand very well their language and their actions.  As a dog, with his great sense of smell, he often knows about dangers and other goings-on that the humans do not know about.  Seaman knows when there are wolves and grizzly bears around the camp, as well as Indians. Sometimes Seaman can keep his friends out of trouble, but sometimes he is frustrated because the humans cannot understand his warnings. 

Seaman comes to love Sacagawea, the young Indian woman, who becomes a guide and translator as the expedition moves further into Indian Territory. He also likes to play with the baby she has during the trip, as the baby becomes a toddler and can move around the camp. 

The book’s author, Roland Smith, was a wolf biologist and an expert on dogs before he researched and wrote about Lewis and Clark.  His using a dog’s point of view to tell the story of one of the greatest adventures in our country’s history makes this book an outstanding experience for the reader.
 
 

 “Cowboy Ghost” is about as exciting a cowboy story as you are ever going to find.  Surprisingly, it is not really a “western,” since it takes place in the state of Florida in 1924.  According to Robert Newton Peck, the book’s author, Florida was the home of cowboys and cattle drives well before the era of cattle ranching in the western states.

 “Cowboy Ghost” is the story of Titus Timothy MacRobertson, nicknamed “Tee,” who finds at age 16 that he lives in the shadow of his older brother. Micah. Micah is a super cowboy, and clearly their ranch owner father’s favorite son. Tee was slight of build like his mother who died when he was born, while Micah was large and strong as an ox, just like his father.  The ranch hands in the bunkhouse admired Micah and, eventually, expected him to take over the ranch from his father. 

Something unusual happened. Several of the ranch hands came down with food poisoning and were unable to help drive the cattle to market, 500 miles away.  In order to have enough men for the drive, Tee had to join the cattle drive.  It was his first one. He knew he had to prove himself to get the respect of his father as well as the ranch hands.  Micah, strong and tough as he seemed, loved his little brother and did everything he could to help Tee believe in himself. 

The cattle drive brought all kinds of hardships, with troubles with a deadly storm, unfriendly Indians, and cattle thieves, only part of them.  How Tee stepped forward in the face of challenges that no one could have foreseen makes up the rest of the story. 

The 202-page paperback is one you won’t be able to put down if you decide to read it.  The fact that it takes place in Florida doesn’t keep it from being a great “western” novel.
 
 

The hero in the little book called “The Matchlock Gun” is Edward Van Alstyne, and he is just ten years old when the story begins.  He lives with his mother and father and little sister in a small house in upper New York State.  The time is 1756 when New York is still a British colony.  The settlers who lived in this region at that time were fearful of Indian raids.  The French were using the Indians in the hope of driving out the British and regaining control of the region. 

Edward had always been fascinated by the big gun that hung over the fireplace.  It was twice as long as Edward was tall.  The gun barrel was shaped like a bell at the end.  The wooden stock of the gun was decorated in brass.  The gun was so heavy a grown man could hardly hold it. Even in 1756, the gun was old and out-of-date.  It had been brought from Europe by Edward’s great-grandfather many years before. 

Early in the story, Edward’s father is called away with the local militia, a small group of local settlers, to defend the colony against a raid a few miles away by invading French soldiers and their Indian helpers.  Edward’s father didn’t think his family needed to worry about Indians getting close to their home.  Just in case, however, he showed Edward how to take down the giant gun from the wall and how to shoot it. 

You can pretty well guess the rest of the story.  The big question is can Edward load and fire this huge gun in order to save his mother, his sister, and himself, when the Indians actually do show up and threaten them at their little home. 

This is not a new book.  It was written more than half a century ago by an author who grew up in upper New York State and liked to write about the history of that area.  The little paperback, reprinted in 1998, is only 64 pages long.  It has been a thrilling book for kids to read since it first appeared in 1941.