Best known for his nonfiction work “Night Comes to the Cumberlands,” Harry M. Caudill also wrote fiction, including “Dark Hills to Westward: The Saga of Jenny Wiley,” first published in 1969 and recently reprinted in a new softback edition by the Jesse Stuart Foundation.When Jenny was an old woman, a preacher sat down with her and wrote out her captivity story.  Although Jenny may have embellished it many times, it [...]

In the 1800s and early 1900s, waves of immigrants came to American cities to escape famine or persecution in their home countries. On New York’s Lower East Side, mostly Irish and Italians were packed into airless, crowded tenements or makeshift shelters, where they lived in extreme poverty. Under these miserable conditions, diseases spread quickly, making orphans of many children. Other children were placed in orphanages by parents who could no [...]

Cynthia Rylant is an author of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry for children and young adults as well as an author and author/illustrator of picture books for children. Rylant is a prolific author who often bases her works on her childhood in the West Virginia mountains. She is the creator of contemporary novels and historical fiction for young adults, middle-grade fiction, and fantasy, lyrical prose poems, collections of short stories, [...]