Roundabout America Books in Order

Orvie's family struggles to keep its Oklahoma farm through drought and looming mortgage payments. His grandfather believes oil lies beneath their land, but the arrival of the boom reveals that sudden wealth cannot solve every problem.

Billy Ben helps his southern Virginia farm family plant, tend, and harvest their peanut crop. Taking their largest harvest to market brings an unexpected adventure that tests the family’s priorities and shows how much the boy matters to them.

Teddy lives with his parents and baby sister in a crowded veterans’ housing project. His father’s war injury, neighborhood tensions, and bullying by older boys complicate daily life, but family bonds and small pleasures offer reasons for hope.

Newsboy Mike, shoeshine boy Angelo, and wealthy Shirley live near one another but experience city life differently. Their connected stories follow the challenges of earning money, maintaining a home, and forming friendships across the boundaries of their separate circumstances.

Kayla grows up among family and neighbors who work in Cape Cod's cranberry bogs. Through their daily lives and demanding harvest labor, the story follows an immigrant community whose shared work and relationships shape her childhood.

Eva White Bird lives with her Dakota family and spends summers riding ponies and playing near the river. Losing her treasured doll sends her searching, while the family faces the harsh weather and difficulties of reservation life.

Four stories explore children’s lives on farms devoted to chickens, cotton, sheep, and trees. Moving from Connecticut and Arkansas to Texas and Louisiana, the collection shows how different kinds of farming shape family routines and children’s experiences.

Three stories follow children in the American Southwest, including a New Mexico Hispanic family, an Arizona Navajo family, and residents of a mining town. Each explores everyday challenges through the children’s experiences within their different communities.

Three illustrated short stories set in Michigan introduce children’s experiences of life in the North. The collection forms part of Roundabout America, which presents young people in different communities and regions of the United States.

Living in a high-rise housing project in a city on Lake Erie, Peggy tries to make friends and improve her neighborhood. Joining efforts against threatening local youths brings her into the struggle to make the project safer for everyone.