Most Popular Books by Lynda Durrant

May 11, 1759. On the morning of Mary Campbell''s 12th birthday, her life takes a terrifying turn for the worse. She is kidnapped by the fearsome Delaware Indians and taken from her family in Pennsylvania, all the way to Delaware on foot. Mary refuses to adopt any of the Delaware ways and holds on to the memory of her family as tightly as she does her dreams for escape. But in order to survive, Mary pretends to be learning and not planning her escape. As the seasons change, Mary realizes with surprise that she is no longer pretending. When the chance comes for Mary to leave, she is not sure that she wants to return to her old life. Is she Mary Campbell or Woman-Who-Saved-The-Corn?

As the Civil War looms, a teenager finds refuge from her abusive father in a Shaker community in this "lovely and thought-provoking" novel ( Kirkus Reviews). Rosemary Elizabeth likes Pleasant Hill. Unlike her former home, the Kentucky Shaker community is serene and full of beautiful things. The food is plentiful and delicious, and she dresses in spotless white garments. Above all, she and her younger siblings are now safe from their drunken, often violent, father, and from the war between the Union and the Confederacy, which is said to be drawing closer every day. Perfection is the goal at Pleasant Hill, and Rosemary Elizabeth vows to be perfect so she''ll be allowed to stay. As time passes, however, she finds herself more and more at odds with the Shaker path, the rules that are supposed to govern everything she says and does and even what she dreams. If she eliminates all the imperfections the Shakers find in her, will anything remain? "Built around a historical incident—a visit by the soldiers of Morgan''s Raiders to Pleasant Hill in 1862—this fine coming-of-age novel rewards readers with an unusual glimpse into a rarely portrayed religion as well as a different perspective on the Civil War." — Booklist

Jennie Hodgers dressed as a boy for the first time in order to help support her impoverished Irish family with a shepherd’s wages. Then her arrival in America confirmed her belief that the world offers better opportunities to young men than to young women. So Jennie maintained her outward identity as Albert Cashier, serving as a grocery clerk in Queens, New York; as a farmhand in Ohio; and as a recruit in the 95th Illinois Infantry during the Civil War. Not only did she survive three years in combat with her true identity undiscovered, she chose to continue living as Albert for nearly all of her life. Combining careful research with vivid insight, Lynda Durrant portrays Albert Cashier as a soldier who served his adopted country and his comrades with loyalty and heroism, and Jennie Hodgers as a woman of a woman of astonishing strength, courage, and adaptability—a woman sometimes at war with her own secrets. Author’s note, bibliography.

Echohawk was a little boy when he was taken from his white family and adopted into a Mohican tribe. For years Echohawk has been speaking and thinking in the Mohican language. He enjoys hunting with his adoptive father Glickihigan and younger brother Bamaineo. Yet as time passes, Glickihigan thinks an English education will help his sons in the changing world and sends them to be schooled by white people. It''s then that Echohawk''s earliest memories return. Soon the time will come for him to choose between the world of the Mohicans and the world he came from long ago.

In 1782, 13-year-old Betsy Zane''s bored with trying to act like a lady and being cooped up with her great-aunt. Her heart and soul yearn for the freedom of living with her brothers at the family homestead along the Ohio River. When her great-aunt dies, Betsy leaves Philadelphia and returns to her home in the western wilderness. But it''s not easy for a young lady to find freedom on the frontier. Her brothers, and even a dashing young soldier, have other ideas about ladylike behavior. Little does anyone know that this young lady will soon risk her life in the final battle of the American Revolution.

Set against the turbulent backdrop of eighteenth-century America, the thrilling sequel to Echohawk has Echohawk and his family embarking on a perilous journey to the Ohio Territory to find more of their people.

Pedrito''s Polish parents survived the horrors of Hitler''s forced labor camps. He was born in a Displaced Persons camp in West Germany after World War II. Venezuela gave the family visas, but Pedrito''s parents longed to live in the United States, where their three boys could live in the land of freedom, a place with dishwashers, chocolate bars, schools the size of a Venezuelan village. A place where larger-than-life opportunities abound. As the years pass, and the waiting becomes more and more difficult, Pedrito befriends Dog, a South American rooster with a caw so deep he sounds more like a dog barking than a rooster''s cock-a-doodle-do. Finally, the visas come through--but what do to with Dog? He''s given the family the courage of a survivor along with a household rid of monster spiders, giant cockroaches, and huge rattlesnakes. Can they survive in a place as strange as Cleveland, Ohio, without their protector and hero? A true story of courage, humor, and heart, and learning how circles are strongest when they''re opened, ''Dog'' has been written for all ages, including young adults.

Marvel Pritchard thought she''d found the perfect gentleman caller. Beau Gideon is an educated scion from an old Southern family. The Gideons'' old money comes from their antebellum cotton empire. Their new money comes from Beau Gideon''s commercial real estate holdings. Beau lives in the Gideon House, a gracious old home on Pink Magnolia Lane, the most prestigious street in town. Her mother, Gladys, who has been training Marvel since childhood to marry into the closed-ranks high society of wealthy Southerners, should be thrilled. Marvel invites Beau over for dinner to meet her parents before they start dating, as is proper, and Beau behaves as a perfect gentleman caller. Instead of being thrilled, Gladys Pritchard warns Marvel away from Beau, but won''t tell her why. Marvel dates him anyway, and mysterious things start happening. She sleeps for hours and hours and wakes up in a strange bedroom in the Gideon House. She always wakes up dressed in peach-colored silk negligees. Has someone drawn blood from her arm? What is going on? On the Nesbitt Farm, Eva Nesbitt-Snow is the happiest she''s been in years with her husband Patrick and their twin boys. Her violent ex, Adrian, shows up on the farm and wrecks havoc on the Nesbitt sisters'' lives. The Nesbitt sisters, their men, Elizabeth''s fierce dog, Oden, and at least one ghost unite to help Ava and destroy Adrian. As the two revenge storylines run parallel, mysterious pasts and shocking antecedents weave them together in the fourth book of the Nesbitt sisters series, The Gentlemen Callers.

In the 1790s, an eccentric young man nicknamed Johnny Appleseed feels a calling by God to travel through the American West planting apple seeds that will feed the hungry and produce more seeds for planting and trading.

Ariel Bradley is Washington’s boy spy who pretends to be a country bumpkin (a “Johnny Raw”). He ‘stumbles’ into General Howe’s camp “looking for the mill” his father has sent him in search of. In reality, he is assessing the strength and numbers of the British and their Hessian (German) allies. After he is sent on his way by the unsuspecting English, he reports this to General Washington and his staff. This information proves key in what became known as the Battle of White Plains.

Hopes are as high as the marijuana crops growing in the barn. The farm is thriving, but nothing stays good forever. Buried secrets seep from the ground as the Nesbitt sisters and the town of Cookham, South Carolina search for answers. Ruby, the youngest Nesbitt sister, cuts her roots and spreads her wings to discover it is not blood that makes a family-it''s the bond of love and the willingness to accept it.

Pennsylvanie, 1760. Mary Caroline, l''aînée de la respectable famille anglaise Campbell, est enlevée le jour de ses douze ans par des Indiens Delaware. Son destin est tracé : elle devra remplacer la petite-fille défunte du grand sachem. Adoptée par le clan des Tortues, elle ne rêve que d''une chose : rejoindre les siens, et mettre fin au cauchemar. Mais les saisons passent, et l''adolescente comprend qu''elle est peu à peu devenue une véritable Indienne. Qui est la vraie Mary Caroline Campbell ? L''histoire authentique d''une enfant déchirée entre deux cultures.

A 12 ans, Faucon Blanc est déjà le meilleur chasseur de la tribu : lapins, marmottes et dindes sauvages tombent impitoyablement sous ses flèches. Pourtant, on murmure autour de lui qu''il porte malheur, à cause de ses yeux clairs, de sa peau trop blanche... car Faucon Blanc n''a pas toujours fait partie de la tribu. Qui est-il exactement ? Le jour où certains souvenirs lointains refont surface, le jeune garçon doit affronter son incroyable histoire...