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Gr 3-6 "I'm not so sure a girl needs a high school education," the head of a rural Colorado school board tells 14-year-old Ida Bidson in 1925. The one-room schoolhouse that she and seven other children attend is to be closed early, and if Ida and her friend Tom don't finish eighth grade and take their exams, they'll lose their chance to attend high school. Without a diploma, Ida will never fulfill her dream of becoming a teacher and seeing the world beyond the mountains. After Tom suggests that she could conduc...Log In or Sign Up to Read More

The opening sentence introduces a spunky and creative heroine: "On a cool Monday morning in early April 1925, Ida Bidson, aged fourteen, carefully guided her family's battered Model T Ford along a narrow, twisting dirt road in Elk Valley, Colorado." Rather than walking the five miles to school, Ida gets her younger brother to work the clutch and brake from the floorboard while she sits on her feet to drive. Th...Log In or Sign Up to Read More