In the diary she receives for her thirteenth birthdayin 1835, Lucinda Lawrence describes the hardships herfamily and other residents of the "Texas colonies" endure when they decide to face the Mexicans in a fight for their freedom.

From the 1500s to the present, different voices and perspectives of men and women--Indian, Mexican, Spanish, Texan, and American--recount the history of the Alamo and its region.

Shunned and mistreated because of her mixed heritage, and determined to avoid an arranged marriage, seventeen-year-old Loi runs away to Ho Chi Minh City with the hope that she and the boy she loves will be able to go to the United States to find her American father.

A Vietnamese-American boy spends a day with his father on his shrimp boat, listening as he describes how his own father fishes on the South China Sea.

The 1845-1846 diary of thirteen-year-old Maria, servant to the wealthy Spanish family which took her in when her Indian mother died. Includes a historical note about the settlement and early history of California.

In the diary she receives for her thirteenth birthday in 1835, Lucinda Lawrence describes the hardships her family and other residents of the "Texas colonies" endure when they decide to face the Mexicans in a fight for their freedom.

High school sophomore Danny Vo tries to resolve the conflict between the values of his Vietnamese refugee family and his new American way of life.