A nine-year-old slave keeps a diary of his journey to freedom along the Underground Railroad in 1857.

After her family immigrates to America from Italy in 1903, ten-year-old Sofia is quarantined at the Ellis Island Immigration Station, where she makes a good friend but endures nightmarish conditions. Includes historical notes.

In her diary, a young girl writes about her life and the events surrounding the beginning of the American Revolution in Philadelphia in 1776.

In her diary for 1856, nine-year-old Meg describes the long, dangerous journey she and her younger brother make from Missouri to Kansas, as well as the new life they find there.

In 1863, as the Civil War approaches her quiet town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, nine-year-old Virginia records in a journal the horrible things she witnesses before, during, and after the Battle of Gettysburg.

In her diary, eleven-year-old Hope writes about her life in 1778 Philadelphia as British Redcoats take over her family's house, her father fights with the Continental Army at Valley Forge, and she gains a new friend and new baby sister. Includes an historical note.