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Colonial Williamsburg: Young Americans book cover 1
Colonial Williamsburg: Young Americans book cover 2
Colonial Williamsburg: Young Americans book cover 3
Colonial Williamsburg: Young Americans
Series · 6 books · 2000-2001

Books in series

Ann's Story book cover
#1

Ann's Story

1747

2000

Ann McKenzie loves living in Williamsburg. All of her family and friends are nearby, and there’s always something exciting happening in the colonial capital. Now that she’s 9 years old, it’s time for Ann to start acting like a proper young woman, learning how to knit, to cook, and to manage a household. She prefers assisting her father, Dr. McKenzie, with his patients and working in his apothecary. Ann knows it’s unheard of for a woman to be a doctor. But there must be some way for her to care for people in the way her father does.
Caesar's Story book cover
#2

Caesar's Story

1759

2000

In partnership with the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation come authentic novels set in the 18th century about actual people, places, and events in this celebrated Virginia town. Caesar’s life as a slave consists of long hours of backbreaking work. Having his mother, father, and sisters around him is the one thing that makes it all bearable. But when the master chooses Caesar to be his personal servant and live in the big house far from his own home, Caesar has no choice but to obey. Why do things have to change?
Nancy's Story book cover
#3

Nancy's Story

1765

2000

The year is 1765, and there's a lot going on in Williamsburg, Virginia. The Stamp Act has just been passed, and many colonists are protesting it because nobody knows what it will mean to the colonies as a whole. Twelve-year-old Nancy Geddy is concerned that the act will make her friend Tom lose his apprenticeship at the Geddy family's foundry. Besides that, Nancy has her own problems. Her stepmother, Elizabeth, is making Nancy's life miserable with her constant complaining and criticism. Nothing Nancy does is good enough for her. Now Elizabeth's difficult pregnancy is threatening to ruin Nancy's opportunity to attend her grandmother's Christmas ball. Will Nancy find a way to accept Elizabeth's different ways and come to love her as a mother?
John's Story book cover
#4

John's Story

1775

2001

The year 1775 is an explosive one—both for the colony of Virginia and 11-year-old John Nicholas’s family. The tensions are rising between England and the colonies, and Virginians disagree on how to act. Like many, John’s father, Robert Carter Nicholas, hopes to find a peaceful solution, but John’s older brother George and his company of the Williamsburg militia think Virginians need to fight for their rights. John feels caught in the middle between the two people he admires most. Can they both be right?
Maria's Story, 1773 book cover
#5

Maria's Story, 1773

2001

In Williamsburg, Virginia, two years before the start of the American Revolution, nine-year-old Maria worries that her mother will lose her contract to publish official reports and announcements of the British government because she prints anti-British articles in their family-run newspaper.
Will's Story book cover
#6

Will's Story

1771

2001

In partnership with the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation come authentic novels set in the 18th century about actual people, places, and events in this celebrated Virginia town. Eleven-year-old Will Pelham's father is the gaoler for the city of Williamsburg. Mr. Pelham took the job only three months ago and Will is still uncomfortable with the prisoners in the cells beneath his family's living quarters. As he does his chores at the gaol, however, he becomes sympathetic to some of the prisoners' situations, particularly that of Emmanuel, a runaway slave. Then Will starts to suspect that Emmanuel is planning to escape. Will knows Emmanuel would be better off as a runaway—the slave is sure to face a harsh punishment, maybe even death, when he's reclaimed by his master. But Will has a responsibility to his father, too. What is he to do?

Author

Joan Lowery Nixon
Joan Lowery Nixon
Author · 74 books
Author of more than one hundred books, Joan Lowery Nixon is the only writer to have won four Edgar Allan Poe Awards for Juvenile Mysteries (and been nominated several other times) from the Mystery Writers of America. Creating contemporary teenage characters who have both a personal problem and a mystery to solve, Nixon captured the attention of legions of teenage readers since the publication of her first YA novel more than twenty years ago. In addition to mystery/suspense novels, she wrote nonfiction and fiction for children and middle graders, as well as several short stories. Nixon was the first person to write novels for teens about the orphan trains of the nineteenth century. She followed those with historical novels about Ellis Island and, more recently for younger readers, Colonial Williamsburg. Joan Lowery Nixon died on June 28, 2003—a great loss for all of us.
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