Candice Ransom

In September 1774, American colonial leaders gathered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. From New Hampshire to Georgia, colonists were angry about the taxes they were forced to pay to Great Britain. But Britain's King George III and the British government refused to listen to the colonists. Decisionmakers from each American colony held a congress-a formal meeting-to discuss what the colonies should do. Some leaders wanted to make peace with Britain. Others...

Late in the spring of 1787, fifty-five men gathered at the Pennsylvania State House. They came to write a new constitution for the United States. The leader of this Constitutional Convention was George Washington. The other men were delegates. The men knew it would be hard for them all to agree on what the constitution should say. But they also knew that a new constitution was important. The young country was in trouble. It had no main leader. Instead,...

From the time she was a very young girl, Rachel Carson felt a bond with nature. Growing up in Pennsylvania, she spent hours exploring meadows and woods, dreaming of seeing the ocean. As Rachel grew older, she combined her gift for writing with her love of nature, producing award-winning books about the sea. But her best-known achievement was the publication of Silent Spring, an account of the dangerous effects of pesticides on plants and animals....

In May 1787, men from all over the United States arrived in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on serious business. Just eleven years earlier, colonial leaders had met in Philadelphia to declare their independence from Great Britain. But now the young country was in trouble. The U.S. government was weak, and its guiding document-the Articles of Confederation-was failing. Throughout the summer of 1787, state representatives and leaders argued, shouted, and...

Young Arly Dunbar loves exploring caves with his grown-up friend Floyd Collins. When Floyd becomes trapped in Sand Cave, the entire town comes to the rescue. Can Arly find a way to help his friend?

After eleven-year-old Jane-Ery loses her father in a sawmill accident, Grandpap comes down from Salter's Mountain to live with her and her mother. To Jane-Ery's surprise, Grandpap's funny ways and strange stories bring her a comfort she never expected. He tells her about Day's Bottom, a place of light and wonderment" that has anything a body could ever want." Jane-Ery wonders: Could she find Daddy there? So begins her search for a new kind of understanding...