WeeklyStorybook

Ariadne and the Magic Thread

by Mike Peterson - illustrated by Marina Tay (color/b&w)
14 chapters -- also available in Spanish

Princess Ariadne has the task of caring for her father’s monster, the Minotaur, to whom young Greeks are sacrificed each year. When a dashing hero comes to Crete, she helps him slay the beast and end the murderous tradition. Then, having betrayed her father and her nation, she flees Crete only to discover that handsome Theseus is a different kind of monster. A thrilling adventure and a thought-provoking story of abusive relationships and self-discovery.

Download Ariadne Guide

Au Pays d'en Haut (To the North Country)

By Mike Peterson -- Illustrated by Dylan Meconis (color/b&w)
14 Chapters

In 1800, 15-year-old Antoine Guilbeault bids farewell to St. Sulpice, Quebec, and heads up river with a company of voyageurs into the Pays d'en Haut, the high country of the far west, on a harsh, dangerous and joyful journey into manhood. This story emphasizes the hard work of earlier days as well as depicting the interplay between voyageurs and native people that gave birth to the Metis culture, at a time when the border between the United States and Canada was uncertain and voyageurs, mountain men and native people mingled over much of the West.

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Download Teacher's Guide (pdf)

The Crown and the Colliers

by Mike Peterson - illustrated by Clio Chiang (color/b&w)
14 chapters

A bi-racial boy finds himself between two hostile factions in a 16th Century kingdom -- His father’s people, the short, dark mountain peasants, and his mother’s, the tall, fair-haired people who rule the nation. He also finds himself caught up in political intrigue, a pawn of the Queen, who seeks to find, and kill, the girl who lives with the Short rebels and their allies, the reclusive colliers. This is a “Treasure Island”- style action thriller, with lessons about tolerance and diversity, historic notes on the period, and a teaching guide that emphasizes note-taking.

Download the Teacher's Guide (pdf)

Fables and Folk Tales

by Mike Peterson - illustrated by Marina Tay (color/b&w)
14 modular installments -- adapt to your schedule!

This collection of stories from various nations and cultures combines fantasy, multi-culturalism and lessons in character development. Authentic stories from Nigeria, Wales, Denmark, Japan, Ireland and elsewhere around the world are sometimes touching, sometimes funny, sometimes chilling, but always have a moral that has stood the test of time. Marina Tay’s striking anime illustrations give this series appeal beyond elementary classrooms!

Freehand

by Mike Peterson - illustrated by Christopher Baldwin (color/b&w)
9 chapters

Freehand is set in Northern New York during the War of 1812

Caleb MacCrimmons loves to draw, but he keeps his sketchbook hidden in the straw of the barn. Whenever his stepfather sees him drawing, he punishes him severely for not concentrating on his chores. It doesn’t help that his stepbrother, Alex, is content to pretend to work and let Caleb look bad.

When a group of soldiers pass by the trading post, retreating from the defeat in Ogdensburg en route to the military base at Sackets Harbor, they offer Caleb the chance to escape his abusive homelife and join the adventure of the war, though Alex tags along at the last minute. Caleb’s ability to draw quick, accurate sketches attracts General Jacob Brown's attention, because good mapmakers are valuable to the army.

Later, when their friends in the regular army join General Zebulon Pike’s assault on the Niagara, Caleb and Alex must stay behind with Gen. Brown’s militia and work to foil the British attempt on Sackets Harbor.

From his experience in battle, and from General Brown -- who was once a school teacher and a surveyor -- Caleb learns the value of channeling his talent and courage in positive directions, and builds a career for himself in peacetime America.

*(This shorter serial is priced at two-thirds our standard price)

Download FreehandGuide

Download Seneca Falls Teaching Guide

From Seneca Falls to the Polling Booth

"From Seneca Falls to the Polling Booth" is an eight-part history of the women's suffrage movement, beginning with the landmark convention in Seneca Falls and leading to the ratification of the 19th Amendment and the first national elections in which women were permitted to vote. Chapters touch on specific issues as well as particular individuals, including the familiar figures of Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, as well as critical figures including Alice Paul and Lucy Stone, and individuals like Inez Milholland and Sojourner Truth. It also looks at issues like the difficult relationship between the suffrage movement and the drive for African-American civil rights.

*(This shorter serial is priced at two-thirds our standard price)

Download Hooch Teaching Guide

Hooch

by Mike Peterson - illustrated by Christopher Baldwin (color/b&w)
9 chapters

"Hooch" is set on America's northern border in the days of Prohibition. Kenny Rascoe's father died in the World War, his mother in the influenza epidemic. Now his chief influences are his uncles: Raymond, the strait-laced customs officer who took over much of his father's role, and George, who Kenny discovers is a bootlegger. Raymond is a source of security and good advice, but George has a flashy roadster and exciting friends. Kenny's classmates are impressed that he knows famous gangster Eddie Nickels and his beautiful flapper girlfriend, but the fun ends when someone close to Kenny has a violent encounter with rumrunners.

*(This shorter serial is priced at two-thirds our standard price)

Download I Will Come Home Guide

I Will Come Home

by Mike Peterson - illustrated by Christopher Baldwin (color/b&w)
9 chapters

It's 1864, and Betsy Harrington has one thing on her mind: Her older brother, Jim, a prisoner of war at the prison camp in Andersonville, Georgia. And life in Elmira offers few distractions, with the Union prison for Confederate soldiers right there in town. She can't understand why the war widow she works for and the former slave who is sexton of her church don't share her bitterness towards the rebel prisoners, until the night she is confronted with a young Southerner who shares her brother's intense desire to get home, and needs her help.

*(This shorter serial is priced at two-thirds our standard price)

The Legend of Perseus

by Mike Peterson - illustrated by Christopher Baldwin
14 chapters -- also available in Spanish

This serial combines suspense, action and solid moral values in a story young readers will love! A young mother is cast out to perish with her infant son by one tyrant and sexually harassed by another. Her son, as he comes of age, tries to protect her, but loses his temper and accepts a dare that could prove fatal: To bring back the head of the horrible Medusa. Through his quest, Perseus learns responsibility and the nature of true heroism.

Old Man Stories

by Frank Lindeman, edited by Mike Peterson
illustrated by Christopher Baldwin - 13 modular chapters

Authentic Blackfoot, Chippewa and Cree legends of the trickster, clown and hero Old Man, told in the traditional manner by a writer who lived among the people of the Northern Plains in the 19th century, before turning his hand to journalism. These stories are not only the real thing, but we donate 30% of gross sales to Rocky Boy Elementary School on the Chippewa/Cree reserve in northern Montana that is home to the children for whom they were created. The teaching guide includes materials to help your teachers approach American Indian culture with sensitivity but without losing the fun of the stories.

Roosevelt, Burroughs and the Trip That Saved Nature

An 8-chapter non-fiction study of the friendship between President Theodore Roosevelt and nature writer John Burroughs and their camping trip to Yellowstone Park during Roosevelt's presidency, a trip that was pivotal in the birth of the conservation movement and the evolution of thinking about preservation and management of natural resources.

Besides creating national parks and preserving public lands as president, Governor Roosevelt was also influential in preserving and protecting the Adirondacks, while Burroughs was a key figure in setting better standards for nature-writing and is remembered alongside Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson, as well as John Muir and Walt Whitman.

Together, these energetic lovers of the natural world formed a key partnership in developing the environmental movement.

*(This shorter serial is priced at two-thirds our standard price)

Download Roosevelt and Burroughs Guide

Stories in the Stars

by Mike Peterson - illustrated by Dylan Meconis
14 modular installments -- adapt to your schedule!

Our most ambitious serial, "Stories in the Stars" combines both the mythology and the astronomy behind some of our most well-known constellations. Written with the assistance of Dr. Sherwood Harrington of De Anza College, author and science writer Brian Fies and the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, this serial tells the stories behind each constellation and then points out its most interesting astronomical features. This is a beautifully illustrated serial with a teaching guide that combines literature and science.

Stories in the Stars has its own support site!

Tales of the Ancient World

by Mike Peterson - illustrated by Dylan Meconis
14 modular installments -- adapt to your schedule!

Cultural literacy combines with engaging fantasy in these classic stories of the ancient world. Read about Arachne, the proud weaver who was changed into a spider, Echo’s hopeless love for the self-absorbed Narcissus, Diana’s terrible revenge upon a voyeur, the timeless love story of Cupid and Psyche, the heartwarming tale of Philemon and Baucis, the kidnapping of Proserpina and other cornerstone tales of our culture. Great illustrations add interest to these classic stories!

Tommy and the Guttersnipe

by Mike Peterson - illustrated by Christopher Baldwin
8 chapters -- plus a Christmas sequel chapter

Historical fiction in the style of Horatio Alger, Jr., "Tommy and the Guttersnipe" partners Tommy, who struggles to help feed his mother and infant sister, with Baby Jake, a tough homeless kid from the streets of New York, as they make their way in a heartless world and, along the way, help to break an arson gang.

*(This shorter serial is priced at two-thirds our standard price)

Download the Teacher's Guide (.pdf)

Voices of America

Oral Histories from the Federal Writers Project
21 modular installments - adapt to your schedule!

An African-American soldier in the trenches of WWI, an itinerant peddler on the Great Plains, a stonecutter’s young widow in Vermont, a cowpuncher from Texas and other real-life witnesses to our nation’s past tell their stories in this series of oral histories from the Federal Writers Project. Extend this serial by publishing oral histories collected by students in your own community.

Download the Teaching Guide (.pdf)

Download the Teacher's Guide (pdf)

Woman of the World: The Story of Nellie Bly

based on Brooke Kroeger’s “Nellie Bly: Daredevil, Reporter, Feminist”
by Mike Peterson - illustrated by Christopher Baldwin
14 chapters -- also available in Spanish

By far our best-selling serial, “Woman of the World:The Story of Nellie Bly” is a biography of an American journalist who changed the face of newspapers. This serial combines an exciting, inspiring story for young readers with well-documented nonfiction that teachers will appreciate. Artist Christopher Baldwin applied painstaking research to make sure the illustrations for this serial are as historically accurate as the text. Written with the resources and advice of Brooke Kroeger, Nellie Bly’s biographer. Teaching guide includes journalism-based writing prompts.