Books published by Houghton Mifflin

Set in the historic Great Valley of Virginia during the years 1900 -- 1932, this absorbing novel centers on the love and marriage of Ada Fincastle, daughter of a hardy Scotch-Irish family. The Fincastles are descended from pioneer settlers who survived Indian wars and the rigors of frontier life. The hardships that Ada Fincastle faces during the early days of the Depression are no less severe, but she draws on the same vein of iron, the courage of generations, to endure and win. Vein of Iron has been widely praised as the finest work of Ellen Glasgow's distinguished career.

From Tom Lee to Robert E. Lee, who made the fateful decision to turn from the nation he loved to defend the state he loved more, the Lees of Virginia dominated both their local and our national landscape.

The first book written specifically for black mothers and fathers that discusses every aspect of parenthood from the time a child is conceived until age six. In collaboration with Donald R. Frisby, M.D., Richard A. McLaughlin, M.D., and Melvin W. Williams, M.D.

Ten-year-old Angel and her little brother Rags have to cope with an incompetent babysitter and several crises while their mother is away. "Angel's good humor and real child concerns carry the day. The book's episodic format will appeal to middle-graders." -- Booklist

Nearing sixty, diagnosed with heart disease and feeling his mortality, Gary Paulsen buys his first Harley-Davidson and rides from his home in New Mexico to Alaska-and from the present into his past, through the landmarks of a singular life. Paulsen's journey is peopled with familiar faces, from the tough cop who saved him from juvenile delinquency to the prostitute whose career advice stopped him from quitting the army. And the work he does while on his bike-the work of mapping his life to find meaning-is of a piece with the pure sweat and muscle of youthful days spent on farms in Minnesota, or at the bottom of septic tank pits in Colorado, or wrangling dogsleds through the Alaskan wilderness. Amid the silence and beauty of running the road on his Harley, Paulsen celebrates the comforts of hard work, the thrill of challenge met bravely, and the peculiar joys of life lived to its fullest.

Once in a while you get a second chance. For Travis Cody this is one of those times. His team, the Oil Camp Roughnecks, is facing the Pineview Pelicans for the state championship. Travis will have forty-eight minutes head-to-head with rival Jericho Grooms. Forty-eight minutes to redeem himself for letting Grooms break him on the play that cost the Roughnecks an undefeated season. Forty-eight minutes to prove he isn't a quitter.

A perfect balance of science, history, and sociology, Time's Pendulum traces the important developments in humankind's epic quest to measure the hours, days, and years with accuracy, and how our concept of time has changed with each new technological breakthrough. Written in an easy-to-follow chronological format and illustrated with entertaining anecdotes, author Jo Ellen Barnett's history of timekeeping covers everything from the earliest sundials and water clocks, to the pendulum and the more recent advances of battery-powered, quartz-regulated wrist watches and the powerful radioactive "clock," which loses only a few billionths of a second per day, making it nearly ten billion times more accurate than the pendulum clock. A tour of the discoveries and the inventors who endeavored to chart and understand time, Time's Pendulum also explains how each new advance gradually transformed our perception of the world.