Julie Danneberg

Sarah is afraid to start at a new school, but both she and the reader are in for a surprise when she gets to her class.

Margaret records in her journal the many wondrous sites she and her family visit on their vacation to Colorado, including the Garden of the Gods, the Royal Gorge, the Continental Divide, and the Black Canyon.

Mrs. Hartwell is concerned that preparing her students to take the Big Test is only making them nervous, and so she thinks of a way to help them relax.

Untalented at riding, roping, and cracking a whip, Slim the cowboy calms a stampeding herd of cattle with his poetry.

Recalls a working day in the life of Impressionist painter Claude Monet, when, so absorbed in his attempts to paint a rock formation on the French seashore, he didn't notice the tide coming in and was doused by a large wave, losing his canvas and paints in the process!

Tells the story of when naturalist John Muir explored a waterfall in Yosemite Valley, California in 1871.

In 1890s Cripple Creek, Colorado, when young Mary McHugh's father loses his leg in a mining accident, she tries to help, both by earning money and by encouraging her father to go back to carving wooden figurines and playing piano

Step back in time and experience the spirit of the West through the eyes of five women: Clara Brown, Sara WInnemucca, Nellie Cashman, Isabella Bird, and Margaret Brown. From a newly freed slave to a refined Englishwoman, from a Native American to a miner's wife, these women, vastly different at first glance, have much to teach about perseverance and courage.

Narrative profiles of five notable women artists who influenced the art of the American West.