An eighteenth-century pirate ship turns up
in the harbor of a modern town

For the summer, twelve-year-old Vicki was working as a waitress in her father's restaurant, called Ye Olde Seashell Room. The restaurant was located near the beach on an Atlantic Ocean bay in New England. At one time in the distant past, sailing ships had used the bay to bring their cargoes to shore. The restaurant itself was quite old and was famous for the masthead of a ship that hung on its wall. The masthead was a carved image of a woman that stared out over the patrons in the eatery. The name on the carving was "The Storm Goddess." There was also an old painting of what looked like a pirate that, supposedly, was a distant ancestor of Vicki's family. There were also rumors of a treasure that had never been found.

That summer, Vicki had become friends with a boy of her own age named Peter. She met Peter when he dined at the restaurant with his father and mother. He and his parents were vacationing. Peter was interested in the history of the area and was especially interested in helping Vicki find out the story behind the masthead and the mystery behind the ship named "The Storm Goddess." The ship had disappeared at sea more than two hundred and thirty years before. The restaurant was also quite old and there was a story that both Ye Olde Seashell Room and the lost ship had some kind of connection.

Vicki and Peter rummaged looking for documents in an old trunk on the upper story of the restaurant. They also discovered that the masthead was hollow inside when it was taken down to be protectively refinished. The mystery became even more challenging when one night the sea water stayed out at sea and exposed the bottom of the bay. There, now on dry land, was the wreck of "The Sea Goddess" lying on its side. Vicki and Peter knew they had to find a way to sneak aboard the old ship. However, the local authorities had already built a fence around the wreck and had bright search lights lighting up the area.

Well, you know the kids are going to find a way to get aboard. Little did they suspect, however, that once aboard they would find some of the original crew still on the ship and fighting over its treasure.

This is an unusual book in that the twenty-first-century kids have to deal with eighteenth-century pirates - obviously ghosts - right in their own modern day community. If you like mysteries and pirate stories, you will like this book.

What it was like for kids to go to a one room schoolhouse
in 1904 Indiana

Fifteen-year-old Russell Culver and his ten-year-old brother, Lloyd, weren't too upset when they got the word that their teacher, Miss Myrt Arbuckle, hauled off and died. It was August and school was just about to start. On such short notice, it was unlikely Hominy Ridge School could start since there would be no teacher. How good could it get? Besides, Miss Myrt was past her prime anyway. She was deaf in one ear from screaming at the kids and had an arm weakened by "whupping" the kids to make them behave.

The last thing in the world the boys expected was that their older sister, Tizzy, would be hired as Miss Myrt's replacement. After all, their dad was president of the school board. Tizzy had gone to board in town to get a higher education and had picked up three years of high school. So she was educated enough to be a probationary teacher. She could start right away. The County Superintendent of Schools would come in and examine her teaching in a few weeks. If she passed the test, she would get a certificate to teach permanently. The trouble was - Tizzy knew her brothers just too well. She was tough enough as a sister without being their teacher as well. Besides, she was one of those people who really loved school and liked to learn. Talk about really bad luck!

And talk about adding insult to injury. The boys had to go with their dad to fix up the schoolhouse and get it ready for school to start. They had to hang the door back up because somebody had torn it off the schoolhouse. The outhouses had to be repaired - one for the girls and one for the boys. The windows and the inside of the wooden-framed building had to be swept and scrubbed. Naturally, Tizzy was there to make sure everything was done just right.

Now, Russell had been making plans with his friend, Charlie Parr, to run off and get jobs working on the wheat field in the Dakotas. They had planned on running off when they were sixteen. If school hadn't opened, they could have done it a year earlier. Now, they'd have to suffer another year in Hominy Ridge. Russell was ready to go anyway, but Charlie kept dragging his heels. Of course, little Lloyd wasn't to know about it. Russell felt guilty that he might be leaving his little brother without a big brother to look up to and take care of him.

Richard Peck, the author of "The Teacher's Funeral," knows how to tell a story in such a way that the reader will be laughing out loud about every other page. He knows just what kind of trouble boys in 1904 could get themselves into.

A middle 1800's orphan girl
wants to own a ranch and raise horses

Charlotte Parkhurst spent her early life in an orphanage for boys. She learned how to fight and protect herself. Her favorite pastime was working with horses in the stable. Unfortunately, the head of the orphanage banned her from the stables and forced her to spend all her time working in the kitchen under Mrs. Boyle, the harsh cook. Charlotte decided to run away and make a new life for herself. With the help of a former slave who had worked with her in the stable, she was able to disguise herself as a boy and catch a stagecoach ride.

Charlotte knew the orphanage head would come looking for her, so she had to flee as far as she could. She also knew she had to remain in disguise or people would recognize her from newspaper reports. She managed to impress an owner of a stable by showing her knowledge of horses and their care. Reluctantly, he hired this "young boy" and eventually trained "Charley" to operate six-horse teams to pull wagons and stage coaches.

Charlotte knew if she ever was going to own her own ranch, she would have to move west where land was cheap. So, eventually, she quit her job and headed west on a stagecoach. She was able to land jobs because of her ability to handle horses and her willingness to work hard. Of course, everyone thought of her as "Charley" and had no idea she was really a girl. She saved her money and, when she found a small ranch for sale, purchased it. She had finally become a ranch owner and was able to live her dream.

"Riding Freedom" by Pam Munoz Ryan is based on the life of a woman who had actually lived her life disguised as a man. Reportedly, she was the first woman to vote in a presidential election, well before it was legal to do so.