You might think that Beatrix Potter was a lonely child. Perhaps you would be right. True, she lived in a large city: London, England. True, the only child she had to play with was her brother, Bertram, and he was usually away at boarding school....

In 1779, more than two hundred years ago, a girl named Maria Cook was born in New York State. When she was born, the Americans were fighting the British in the War for Independence. The Americans wanted to have their own country where they could be independent and free to make their own decisions...

"Mama, Mama, why do we just keep going and going and not going anywhere?" asked little Sophie. Her family was crossing the wide Pacific Ocean on a big ship bound for America. Sophie Lyon was an American girl, three and a half years old, making her first trip to America. She and her older brothers...