Kathleen Ernst

When a mysterious stranger arives at her rancho, Josefina begins to wonder about the tales she has heard while growing up about rumors of gold and silver buried in the hills and a ghostly Weeping Woman.

Caroline's father has just returned when they receive frightening news--British warships are sailing to attack Sackets Harbor. Every grown man, including Papa, has been called to defend the village. Mama and Caroline are left alone to guard Abbott's Shipyard as the battlefront draws ever closer. Caroline knows she must be brave to keep Papa's shipyard safe. But when the battle seems lost, Mama gives her a terrible order: burn the shipyard to the ground....

When Caroline and her friends Rhonda and Seth go out fishing, they sight an American supply boat being pursued by a British warship, and Caroline must come up with a daring plan to notify the town and save the boat.

When Caroline Abbott's father is taken prisoner during the War of 1812, she tries to stay strong by helping her mother run the family's shipyard and aiding American soldiers when the British attack her village.

As the war continues into May 1945, eleven-year-old Molly finds herself pulled in many different directions trying to cope with her troubled father's return from war, the abrupt resignation of her favorite Red Cross volunteer, a scrap-paper drive, and a mysterious neighborhood prowler.

A modern-day girl finds herself on the shore of Lake Ontario during the War of 1812, and as she and and Caroline Abbott experience life in this turbulent time, the reader is invited to choose how the twosome might help the Americans beat the British.