Fleeing from a neighbor's assailants, who believe he has identified them to the police, LeRoy leaves his Chicago housing project to live with his grandfather, a shrimp fisherman, in Mississippi. When the Chicago police come for him, LeRoy must decide if he is going to risk his life testifying.

A shy girl follows the suggestions in a self-help book to win the attentions of the handsome new boy whose locker is next to hers.

Nine short stories explore the trials and tribulations of teenage life.

In a trip back in time, Brann meets his father as a ten-year-old and learns for the first time to love and understand him.

Discusses the planning for and the aftermath of the American use of the atomic bomb which destroyed two Japanese cities in August 1945.

Details the World War II battles between the Americans and the Japanese at the Pacific islands of Midway and Guadalcanal.

Living on the western Canadian prairie in the nineteenth century, Sweetgrass, a fifteen-year-old Blackfoot Indian girl, saves her family from a smallpox epidemic and proves her maturity to her father.

Presents the events in the Civil War leading up to the Battle of Gettysburg and describes that clash and its aftermath.

Describes the far-reaching repercussions of the events of March 7, 1965 when 525 men, women, and children in Alabama attempted to march from Selma to the state capitol in Montgomery in order to register to vote.