In 1764, when Kaya and her family reunite with other Nez Percé Indians to fish for the red salmon, she learns that bragging, even about her swift horse, can lead to trouble. Includes historical notes on the Nez Percé Indians.

Nine-year-old Josefina, the youngest of four sisters living in New Mexico in 1824, tries to help run the household after her mother dies.

On a visit to Cincinnati from rural Kentucky during the Great Depression, Aunt Millie impresses Kit with her money-saving cleverness. Includes information on life in America during the Great Depression.

Contains six stories about the adventures of Josefina Montoya, a young girl living in New Mexico in the 1820s, following her as she adjusts to growing up and the many changes that occur in her household after the arrival of her Tia Dolores who has come to care for her and her sisters following the death of their mother.

While looking for Steps High, the horse that had been stolen from her, Kaya faces danger from a sudden grassland fire. Includes historical notes on the Nez Percé Indians.

While celebrating her brother's Bar Mitzvah on Coney Island, nine-year-old Rebecca Rubin disobeys by going off on her own, leaving her cousin Ana, a recent immigrant, alone.

When Kaya and her family join with other Nez Percé and Salish Indians to fish for the red salmon, she and her older sister hope to be reunited with their younger sister, who had been kidnapped some time before. Includes historical notes on the summer activities of the Nez Percé Indians.

In 1974 at her new San Francisco school, nine-year-old Julie does not want to tell her class about her parents' divorce, or to tell her sister about messing up her school assignment, but when she breaks her finger playing basketball and her whole family rallies around her, she realizes the importance of telling the truth.

Josefina hopes to become a "curandera" or healer like Tía Magdalena, and she is tested just before her tenth birthday when a friend receives a potentially fatal snakebite.

"Kit Kittredge has a nose for news--but she never dreamed that the news stories about the hard times of the Depression would become her own story. First Mother's bothersome friends move in with the Kittredges. Then Dad loses his business, and Kit's family could lose their house! Things look hopeless, but a clever idea might let her family keep their home. Can Kit help pull it off?"--