Michelle Houts: 8 books

It took her two tries, but in 1955, sixty-seven-year-old Emma “Grandma” Gatewood became the first woman to solo hike the entire length of the Appalachian Trail in one thru-hike. Gatewood has become a legend for those who hike the trail, and in her home state of Ohio, where she helped found the...

After years of waiting, it is finally Libby Ryan’s turn to shine at the Practical County Fair. Libby is filled with excitement as she and her granddad pick out two calves for her to raise on her family’s cattle farm, in hopes of winning the annual steer competition. Against her father’s advice,...

When you look at a bird, do you see feathers and a beak? Or do you see circles and triangles? Artist Charley Harper spent his life reducing subjects to their simplest forms, their basic lines and shapes. This resulted in what he called minimal realism and the style that would become easily recognized...

On Lucy’s first day of second grade, she’s excited to meet her new teacher, Miss Flippo, and find out everything’s she’s going to learn about this year in school. And when Miss Flippo tells the class that they’re going to have their very own science lab, complete with lab coats and goggles,...

Autumn has arrived, and at Granite City Elementary School everyone is gearing up for the biggest and best event of the year: the Harvest Festival. The whole school is excited about the games, the contests, the food, and, most of all, the costumes! Everyone except Lucy. She doesn’t like dressing...

Dorothy Mary Kamenshek was born to immigrant parents in Norwood, Ohio. As a young girl, she played pickup games of sandlot baseball with neighborhood children; no one, however, would have suspected that at the age of seventeen she would become a star athlete at the national level. The outbreak...

An ordinary Danish Christmas turns extraordinary when a family overlooks an important folkloric tradition. Christmas has come, and with it a sparkling white winterfrost over the countryside. But twelve-year-old Bettina’s parents have been called away unexpectedly, leaving her in charge of...

Lucy accidentally overhears her parents talking about the family getting a second pet. But what pet should they get? At school, Lucy’s class is learning about fossils and the plants and animals that left them behind. One afternoon, Lucy finds a special rock, and Miss Flippo gets very...