Bullied and shamed her whole life for being fat, twelve-year-old Ellie finally gains the confidence to stand up for herself, with the help of some wonderful new allies.--

Having crossed the Rio Grande into Texas with his mother in search of a new life, Joaquin receives help and friendship from Prietita, a brave young Mexican American girl.

"Yeehaw, Sparky is off to the Texas rodeo to find himself a job! There he eats delicious-smelling BBQ, watches mutton chasing and barrel racing, and even helps a new friend become a rodeo dog. But as Sparky heads home, he still doesn't have a job himself. Wait, he has the very best job of all--being Josh's best friend!"--

A true-life novel about Lily Casey Smith (the author's grandmother) who at age six helped her father break horses, at age fifteen left home to teach in a frontier town, and later as a wife and mother runs a vast ranch in Arizona where she survived tornadoes, droughts, floods, the Great Depression, and the most heartbreaking personal tragedy--but despite a life of hardscrabble drudgery still remains a woman of indomitable spirit.