The barn was never going to be the biggest in Oregon Territory. There was a chance, however, it could mean the most. After all, Ben and his older sister and brother, Nettie and Harrison, built it themselves. They felled the trees, split them into logs, piled stones for foundations, hoisted the walls, and roofed them over. Ben insisted they get no help. The barn, he said, was to be their gift for Father, who lay sick and silent as a cave on his bed in their one-room house, or in the wheel-barrow propped up like some corn-husk doll. Ben thought Father should see the progress of the barn. For hadn't the man agreed, with a flick of his eyes, that a barn would make him well? Avi's story is set in 1855, but as a tribute to hope and resourcefulness it is timeless. Bookshare has at least 20 books by Avi. Some are sad, and some are funny, Some set in the present and some in the past, and some are for younger kids and others for older kids and teens. Check them out by searching Avi in the Bookshare library.
