Horse America

When the leaders of the Santa Fe Railway followed the path of least resistance across the “great American desert” they encountered a world like no other. This book will introduce you to the team of "Iron Horses": leading men and women who helped create a vision and an empire.

The proud Virginian entered the war in uncertain times, and there were understandable doubts about how well he could lead soldiers, but through a combination of skill and luck, he became one of his country’s earliest and foremost military heroes. After the war, he would go on to a distinguished political career, and he would find himself caught up in civil unrest toward the end of his life.

In Spanish Florida during the nineteenth century, one man shaped the course of Black Seminoles—descendants of Seminole Indians and free Blacks and escaped slaves—more than any other. A political and military leader of both Seminole and African heritage, John Horse valiantly defended his people from slave hunters, other tribes, and the U.S. government. After fighting in the Second Seminole War—one of the longest and most costly Native American conflicts in United States history—Horse negotiated territory for the Black Seminoles and became a guide and interpreter.

Starley is a young girl living in Hawaii who dreams of the being the best rodeo rider in the state. With the encouragement of her friends Liko and Heidi and the devotion of her talented chestnut mare, Sunshine, she just might have what it takes to win.

Nat is a city girl through and through. She loves playing in open fire hydrants, laughing with her friends during block parties, and making trips to her local comic book shop to grab the latest copy of her favorite graphic novel series. So she's heartbroken when her mom says they're moving to a rural town hours away from Philadelphia. Who wants to live in the middle of Nowheresville? But getting used to her new small-town life might not be as bad as Nat thought now that she's met the boy next door and his beautiful horse, Ghost.

Of all the things that a nation, or even an individual, need to survive a crisis, none is perhaps as necessary as hope. That feeling that somehow one can survive, win even, though the odds are stacked against them and the outlook is grim. Throughout its history, the United States has been blessed, often when most needed, with hope from a strange place.

STRAIGHT FROM THE HORSE'S MOUTH! Smarty Jones-the Kentucky Derby, Preakness, and near Belmont Stakes Triple Crown winner finally opens up about his life on and off the racetrack. The Thoroughbred Thinker hurls some zingers, and throws a few ringers on the horseracing establishment. In this fact-based fable, America's horse touches on topics spanning leadership and motivation to humor and humility.