Books by William Durbin

In 1800, thirteen-year-old Pierre LaPage dreams of becoming a voyageur and paddling a fur trade canoe. But this is something that older, more experienced men do. However, when Pierre''s father has an accident, Pierre signs on with the North West Company so that his family will have money to survive the winter. Life is hard for Pierre as the youngest member of his brigade. Treacherous rapids, blistered hands, aching muscles, and the cruel teasing of the older men make him miserable. But there is no turning back for Pierre, and he must endure the 1,000 mile journey from Montreal to Grand Portage.

The further adventures of a boy discovering the challenges and the humor of a log drive in Minnesota's north woods in 1899

Thirteen-year-old Bella wants to be a lector like her grandfather, who reads to the workers in a cigar factory in Tampa, Florida. But will Bella be able to get the education she needs during the Depression?

According to thirteen-year-old Ben Ward’s father, lumberjacks look forward to two things: mealtime and springtime. In the winter of 1898, Ben leaves school for a job as a cook’s assistant to his father at the Blackwater Logging Camp. As Ben spends long hours peeling potatoes and frying flapjacks, he dreams of working in the woods with the other men, felling trees, driving a team, and skidding timber. While enduring a long, cold winter in a camp filled with outlandish characters, as well as an orphan boy named Nevers, Ben comes to understand himself and his family’s past. Peppered throughout with heart and humor—and including a glossary and afterword with facts about logging—Blackwater Ben paints a vivid picture of the north woods of Minnesota at the end of the nineteenth century.