Patricia Hermes

Traveling with his owners from Missouri to Oregon in 1848, Koda, an energetic two-year-old quarter horse, finds the long journey increasingly tedious and tiring until his young owner goes missing on the trail and he must use all his skills to find her.

In 1611, ten-year-old Elizabeth continues a journal of her experiences living in Jamestown, as her brother Caleb rejoins the family, a new strict governor comes to the colony, and her father considers remarriage.

Late in 1848, nine-year-old Joshua McCullough starts a second journal, this time recording events in Willamette Valley, Oregon Territory, as his family and others they met on the trail begin to get settled.

Nine-year-old Emma O'Fallon finds herself in increasing difficulties at home and at school as her determined efforts to break up the growing attachment between Irish nanny Annie and her boyfriend Bo cause chaos on a family camping trip and Emma's relationship with her best friend Luisa seems to be going from bad to worse.

Emma's happy summer of soccer camp with best friend Luisa and visits to Rooney, the beloved old horse at the nearby stables where Annie the nanny helps out, changes when she discovers that Rooney is being sold and Luisa has some unhappy news.

When Emma and her brothers and sisters want to get a kitten and another ferret, and Emma wants their nanny to be the chaperone on her soccer team trip instead of her mother, the children decide to go on strike to try to force their parents to meet their demands.