Books with a Vermont Setting

Vermont and Vermonters have inspired many a book. For a full list, go to the Vermont Department of Libraries’ Bibliographies, Resources and Traveling Exhibits page and choose the "Green Mountain Sampler" from the list. This has a descriptive bibliography going back to the 1930s. These are books that have a "specific or fully realized Vermont setting." Sort of like the pedigree required for someone to be a true "Vermonter."

Our list should have something to appeal to almost any taste–historical adventure, time travel, mysteries, ghost stories, growing-up stories. All the books are either in print or definitely likely to be available through the Vermont library system–ask for an interlibrary loan if it’s not on the shelves. Out-of-print books on the DOL list MAY be found through the library system. Or look at our Bookstore Guide for sources of out-of-print books. (That any book is out-of-print these days is, as we know, unrelated to its quality.) Some books, unavoidably, with be out-of-stock by the time you want them. Your local bookstore can help with locating a copy.

Armstrong, Jennifer. Steal Away. Orchard, 1992.
In 1855, two thirteen-year-old girls, one white and one black, run away from a southern farm and make the difficult journey north to freedom, living to recount their story forty-one years later to two similar young girls.

Bryant, Louella. Black Bonnet. New England Press, 1996.
As they near the end of their journey to freedom along the Underground Railroad, twelve-year-old Charity and her sixteen-year-old sister Bea encounter additional perils.

Budbill, David. Bone on Black Spruce Mountain. Dial, 1978.
Seth's & Daniel's camping trip to a lonely mountain top becomes a journey into a painful past that Daniel must confront. Or Snowshoe Trek To Otter River. Three short stories in which Daniel and Seth practice their survival skills in the Northern Vermont woods.

Curtis, Alice T. Little Maid of Ticonderoga. Applewood Books.
Two little girls in Vermont during the Revolution.

Ehrlich, Amy. Where It Stops Nobody Knows. Dial Press.
Nina and her mother move from place to place, never revealing anything of themselves, and causing Nina to wonder if they will ever stop hiding.

Fisher, Dorothy Canfield. Understood Betsy. Hardscrabble Books.
A too much "understood" child goes to live in rural Vermont and finds a new way of life.

Gasque, Dale Blackwell. Pony Trouble. Hyperion, 1998.
Amy envies her cousin Rebecca's skill at gymnastics and swimming, not knowing that Rebecca wishes she had Amy's way with animals.

Haas, Jessica. Keeping Barney. Econo-Clad Books, 1999
The original in the Barney series about a girl and her horse.

Hayes, Sheila. The Tinker’s Daughter. Lodestar, 1995.
Holly wishes that she had a "normal" mother instead of a fugitive from the Sixties who runs an antique shop filled with what most people think is junk.

Hayford, James. Gridley Firing. New England Press, 1987.
Martin Patch, with the help of a pet skunk and his music teacher helps his family fight off the bank foreclosure on their Vermont farm.

Henry, Marguerite. Justin Morgan Had a Horse. Macmillan.
Authentic story of the first Morgan horse, with background of early Vermont.

Hesse, Karen. A Time of Angels. Disney Press.
Sick with influenza during the 1918 epidemic and separated from her two sisters, a young Jewish girl living in Boston relies on the help of an old German man, and her visions of angels, to get better and to reunite herself with her family.

Huntington, Lee Pennock. Brothers in Arms. Countryman Press, 1976.
Huntington presents her own family history in this fictionalized account of the Pennock brothers, eight of whom were loyalists, while one was a Patriot.

Hurwitz, Johanna. Faraway Summer. Morrow, 1998.
In the summer of 1910, Dossi, a poor Russian immigrant from the tenements of New York, spends two seeks with the Meade family on their Vermont farm, and all their lives are enriched by the experience.

Hurwitz, Johanna. Llama in the Family. Morrow, 1994.
Because Adam hopes that the "big surprise" awaiting him at home has two wheels and pedals, he is unprepared for the unusual additional to his Vermont family.

Hurwitz, Johanna. Yellow Blue Jay. Morrow, 1986.
Happy to spend his summer vacation at home in the city, eight-year-old Jay is horrified by his parents' plan to spend two weeks in the Vermont woods sharing a house with another family.

Kinsey-Warnock, Natalie. As Long As There Are Mountains. Cobblehill, 1997.
Thirteen-year-old Iris dreams of one day running the family farm in northern Vermont, but the summer of 1956 holds many shocking changes that threaten the life Iris loves. Also: The Canada Geese Quilt. Dutton, 1989, In the Language of Loons. Cobblehill, 1998.

Kirkpatrick, Doris. Honey in the Rock. Elsevier/Nelson, 1979.
During the autumn of 1936, a 16-year-old girl begins to see signs that life in her small village in Vermont is drastically changing.

Lenski, Lois. Deer Valley Girl. Lippincott, 1968. (Out of print, but very likely to be in libraries.)
The Vermont background of small farm dairying and the presence of white-tailed deer form the basis of this story about 12-year-old Abby.

Lindbergh, Anne. Travel Far, Pay No Fare. HarperCollins, 1992.
When twelve-year-old Owen finds that his nine-year-old cousin has a magic bookmark, he joins her when she enters different stories in hopes of finding a way to prevent their parents' forthcoming marriage.

Maguire, Gregory. Seven Spiders Spinning. Clarion, 1994.
Seven prehistoric spiders that had been trapped in ice for thousands of years bring excitement to rural Vermont and briefly unite two rival clubs at a local elementary school. Also: Five Alien Elves Six Haunted Hairdos

Murrow, Liza Ketchum. Twelve Days in August. Holiday, 1993.
Twelve days in August change a sixteen-year-old soccer player's perceptions of himself, his family, girls and gays.

Newman, Edgar N. Green Mountain Hero. Lantern, 1961. Reprinted by New England Press, 1988.
Based on the lives of Ann Story, "The Mother of the Green MountainBoys," and her son Solomon, this describes the Storys' settling in Vermont and their involvement with the Green Mountain Boys.

Ovecka, Janice. Captive of Pittsford Ridge. New England Press, 1994.
In 1777 when he rescues a wounded Hessian drummer, young Josiah Freeman is drawn into the fighting at the Battle of Hubbardton near his family's farm in Vermont. Also: Cave of Falling Water. For each of three girls growing up in different periods of Vermont's history, one Abenaki, one colonial white, and one a modern girl, a cave serves as an important refuge.

Paterson, Katherine. Jip. Lodestar, 1996.
While living on a Vermont poor farm during 1855 and 1856, Jip learns his identity and that of his mother and comes to understand how he arrived at this place.

Paterson, Katherine. Lyddie. Dutton, 1991.
Impoverished Vermont farm girl Lyddie Worthen is determined to gain her independence by becoming a factory worker in Lowell, Massachusetts, in the 1840's.

Peck, Robert Newton. A Day No Pigs Would Die. Knopf, 1972.
A young Shaker boy learns what manhood is all about through observing birth and slaughter
on a Vermont farm. Also: A Part of the Sky (Sequel to A Day No Pigs Would Die)

Peck, Robert Newton. Soup. Knopf, 1974.
The adventures and misadventures of two boys growing up in a small Vermont town. Sequels include: Soup & Me, Soup for President, Soup’s Goat

Roach, Marilynne K. Encounters With the Invisible World. Crowell, 1977.
Ten tales of ghosts, witches and the Devil himself in New England. "The Ghost in the Shed" takes place in Vermont.

Schwartz, Alvin Gold and Silver, Silver and Gold. Farrar, 1988.
The first story, "A Treasure Found," involves a treasure map left in a house in Middlesex, Vermont

Singer, Marilyn. California Demon. Hyperion, 1992.
When Rosie accidentally releases an imp from a bottle in her mother's magic shop, he ends up in California where he causes great havoc until Rosie convinces her mother to teach her witchcraft so that she can help recapture him.

Speare, Elizabeth. Calico Captive. Houghton, 1957.
Story of Miriam Willard who was captured by the Indians in 1754, sold to the French for ransom, and later returned to her Vermont home.

Stevenson, Laura. Happily After All. Houghton, 1990.
When her father dies, ten-year-old Rebecca is sent to live with the mother she's been brought up to believe had abandoned her and, through a growing relationship with a troubled foster child,begins to accept her mother and some of the truths her father had always kept from her.

Thompson, Julian F. Ghost Story. Holt, 1997.
Fourteen-year-old Anna's friendship with ghostly Roxy, who died in 1818, helps her discover the truth behind a handsome New York photographer staying at her parents' inn in Vermont and using her as a model.

Warner, Gertrude Chandler. The Mystery at Snowflake Inn. Whitman, 1994.
While staying at an eighteenth-century inn in Vermont, the Boxcar children become curious about the mysterious "accidents" that keep plaguing the owners.

Wisler, G. Clifton. Mr. Lincoln’s Drummer. Lodestar, 1995.
Recounts the courageous exploits of Willie Johnston, an eleven-year-old Civil War drummer, who became the youngest recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor.

Zindel, Paul. Loch. HarperCollins, 1994.
Fifteen-year-old Loch and his younger sister join their father on a scientific expedition searching for enormous prehistoric creatures sighted in a Vermont lake, but it soon becomes obvious that the expedition's leaders aren't interested in preserving the creatures.

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