Karen Cushman

Against a vivid backdrop of everyday life on a medieval English manor, Catherine's earthy, spirited account of her fourteenth year is a richly entertaining story with an utterly unforgettable heroine....

Lyrical yet unsentimental, The Midwife's Apprentice won the coveted 1996 Newbery Medal....

On a frosty morning sometime in the 14th century, in a village somewhere in England, a girl known only as Brat was sleeping in a dung heap. "You, girl. Are you alive or dead?" This woman was Jane the midwife, and she needed a helper....

In 1290, her 14th year, Catherine begins a diary that quickly fills with the irrepressible joys and frustrations of her days....

Catherine feels trapped. Her father is determined to marry her off to a rich man—any rich man, no matter how awful. But by wit, trickery, and luck, Catherine manages to send several would-be husbands packing. Then a shaggy-bearded suitor from the north comes to call....

In the summer of 1849, Lucy Whipple's mother packs up her household and her two young children....

A girl known only as Brat has no family, no home, and no future until she meets Jane the Midwife and becomes her apprentice. As she helps the short-tempered Jane deliver babies, Brat—who renames herself Alyce—gains knowledge, confidence....

Will Sparrow, liar and thief, is running away—from the father who sold him for beer, from the innkeeper who threatened to sell him as a chimney sweep, from his whole sorry life....

Orphaned Matilda is not at all pleased when she arrives at Blood and Bone Alley to become an assistant to Red Peg the Bonesetter....

It's time for Grayling to be a hero. Her mother, a "wise woman" - a sort of witch - has been turned into a tree by evil forces....

Fans of Karen Cushman's witty, satisfying novels will welcome Meggy Swann, newly come to London with her only friend, a goose named Louise. Meggy's mother was glad to be rid of her; her father, who sent for her, doesn't want her after all....

In 1881, 12-year-old Rodzina Clara Jadwiga Anastazya Brodski wishes she didn't have to board the orphan train in Chicago. But she has no home, no family, and no choice....

Francine lives down the street from a Hollywood film studio, adores screen dreamboat Montgomery Clift, and sometimes sees her home life as a scene from a movie....

From the Newbery-Award winning author of Catherine, Called Birdy and The Midwife's Apprentice comes the story of an orphan on the American frontier who decides to go west—with nothing but gumption as her guide.