Diane Ravitch's book is an angry look at the censorship that right-wing (and also politically correct left-wing) groups are able to exercise on educational publishers, who hire "bias and sensitivity" experts to ensure that not one word will be offensive to anyone. Accordingly, books showing dinosaurs, women cooking, owls, candy, and angry people are tabu. In one of many insights into the situation, she points out that conservative groups try to make the world represented in textbooks into an idealized version of the past, while more left-leaning groups try to impose an idealized Utopian future on the material. Ravitch indicts publishers for pandering to the marketplace (represented by fanatical pressure groups) at the expense of children's learning and the widening of their experience. A New York Times Notable Book for 2003.

The story of the Civil War as seen from the perspective of common soldiers in both armies. Based on personal accounts, some of the topics covered include medical care, life as a prisoner-of-war, and the many Native Americans who fought in the war. Illustrated with black-and-white photographs.

Lacy teaches eighth grade and is engaged to Ellis, but her affair with Black Jesus, a famous blues musician, touches off a crisis in her life which leads her to confront her abusive mother.

In this story set in the 1700s, 16-year-old Nancy is left penniless when her father dies. Not knowing what else to do with her, Nancy's relatives arrange for her to marry a wealthy but cruel man. Nancy, however, has other plans for her future. Accompanied by an escaped slave named Minerva, Nancy disguises herself as a boy and joins the crew of a pirate ship.

Former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich offers a series of proposals that he thinks will improve the lot of the struggling middle class by involving government, business, and citizens in goals based on values and common sense.