Books like The Ballad of Lucy Whipple by Karen Cushman

California doesn't suit Lucy Whipple -- not the name, not the place. But moving out West to Lucky Diggins, California, was her mama's dream-come-true. And now her brother, Butte, and sisters, Prairie and Sierra, seem to be Westerners at heart, too. For Lucy, Lucky Diggins is hardly a town at all -- just a bunch of ramshackle tents and tobacco-spitting miners. Even the gold her mama claimed was just lying around in the fields isn't panning out. Worst of all, there's no lending library! Dag diggety! So Lucy vows to be plain miserable until she can hightail it back East where she belongs. But Lucy California Morning Whipple may be in for a surprise -- because home is a lot closer than she thinks. And then she realizes that her family's history in Massachusetts is far richer and more interesting than anything she's ever heard. As they're leaving their hometown, Lucy and her family will discover the Ballad of Lucy Whipple: the story of how Lucy's grandfather, the first wife of the town's richest man, founded a fortune-making business. And they'll find out what Lucy's father has never told them about his mother's past, which has led him to believe that he's a poor man who lost everything in the Great Depression. All of it will come to light in this extraordinary, family-centric story.

First publish date: 1996