ESOL/PIE046 Long

The Civil War in Missouri was a time of great confusion, violence, and destruction. Although several major battles were fought in the state between Confederate and Union forces, much of the fighting in Missouri was an ugly form of terrorism carried out by loose bands of Missouri guerrillas, by Kansas "Jayhawkers," or by marauding patrols of Union soldiers. This irregular warfare provided a training ground for people like Jesse and Frank James who, after the war, used their newly learned skills to form an outlaw band that ultimately became known all over the world. Jesse James and the Civil War in Missouri discusses the underlying causes of the Civil War as they relate to Missouri and reveals how the war helped create both the legend and the reality of Jesse James and his gang.

For nineteenth-century travelers, the Santa Fe Trail was an indispensable route stretching from Missouri to New Mexico and beyond, and the section called "The Missouri Trail"--from St. Louis to Westport--offered migrating Americans their first sense of the West with its promise of adventure. The truth was, any easterner who wanted to reach Santa Fe had to first travel the width of Missouri. This book offers an easy-to-read introduction to Missouri's chunk of Santa Fe Trail, providing an account of the trail's historical and cultural significance.

LEXILE 630
They are an unlikely pair: George is "small and quick and dark of face"; Lennie, a man of tremendous size, has the mind of a young child. Yet they have formed a "family," clinging together in the face of loneliness and alienation. Laborers in California's dusty vegetable fields, they hustle work when they can, living a hand-to-mouth existence. For George and Lennie have a plan: to own an acre of land and a shack they can call their own.

LEXILE: 860
Four Chinese-American siblings make an emotional journey to their ancestral home in this novel from the Nobel and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Good Earth.  Dr. Liang is a comfortably well-off professor of Confucian philosophy who fled China because of the government's crackdown on intellectuals. Now, settled in 1940s New York, he believes in the notion of a pure and unchanging homeland. Under his influence, Liang's four grown children make the momentous decision to move to China, despite having spent their whole lives in the United States. But as the siblings try in various ways to adjust to a new place and culture, they learn that the definition of home is far different from what they expected.   Kinfolk is the involving story of an American family and literary fiction of the highest order. The New York Times-bestselling author explores the complexities of immigration, multiculturalism, nationality, and the primordial human longing to find our roots.

LEXILE: 690
This thrilling adventure story from the celebrated author of The Call of the Wild traces a wolf-dog's epic journey from savage beast to man's best friend Three men traverse the frozen landscape of the Yukon Territory on a sled--two stand upright, one lies dead in a coffin. Stalked by a pack of starving wolves, the travelers are out of ammunition and low on food. When night falls, the wolves will make their final assault. The men's time is running short, but White Fang's story is just beginning.   Part wolf, part dog, White Fang is a hunter without a pack, at home neither in the camp nor in the wilderness. From the banks of the frozen Klondike river to the teeming streets of Gold Rush-era San Francisco, White Fang never stops fighting--first to survive, and then to find a home.

LEXILE 970-1030
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz chronicles the adventure of Dorothy in the land of Oz. A cyclone picks her up from her Kansas home, where she lives with her aunt and uncle, and deposits her in the fantastical land. She begins a journey along the yellow brick road to seek help from the Wizard of Oz. On her way she meets her fair share of witches (good and bad) and a scarecrow without a brain, a tinman without a heart and a cowardly lion. They travel together to the Emerald City....