Book

I, Catherine Cabot Hall, aged 13 years, 6 months, 29 days... do begin this book.

So begins the journal of a girl coming of age in nineteenth-century New Hampshire.

Catherine records both the hardships of pioneer life and its many joys. Even as she struggles with her mother's death and father's eventual remarriage, Catherine's indomitable spirit makes this saga an often-times uplifting and joyous one.

Quiet yet powerful, this award-winning book is sure to touch all who read it.

Winner of the Newbery Medal

"Did Mama sing every day?" Caleb asks his sister Anna.
"Every-single-day," she answers. "Papa sang, too." Their mother died the day after Caleb was born. Their house on the prairie is quiet now, and Papa doesn't sing anymore.

Then Papa puts an ad in the paper, asking for a wife, and he receives a letter from on Sarah Elisabeth Wheaton, of Maine. Papa, Anna, and Caleb write back. Caleb asks if she sings.

It's 1816, and Remembrance Nye and her family are enduring a cold, hard summer in their new home in western New York. There's barely any food, since Papa's crops were destroyed by the late frosts. Mem's mama has never gotten used to their new home and finds it even harder to cope after she gives birth to baby Lily. Papa puts Mem in charge of caring for the baby, her younger brother, and their sick mother. Though Mem tries her best, it's hard to do the chores and watch them every moment. Then the worst happens: One stormy night Mama and Lily disappear.