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Little City by the Lake

Celia Wilkins · back to the book

What’s in it

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24 books with the same feel

Include books by the same author
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Coming of AgeNostalgicCharmingHeartwarming
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A Long Way from Chicago

Richard Peck · 160 pages

What happens when Joey and his sister, Mary Alice -- two city slickers from Chicago -- make their annual summer visits to Grandma Dowdel's seemingly sleepy Illinois town? August 1929: They see their first corpse, and he isn't resting easy. August 1930: The Cowgill boys terrorize the town, and Grandma fights back with a dead mouse and a bottle of milk. August 1931: Joey and Mary Alice help Grandma

NostalgicComing of AgeMiddle GradeMultigenerational Family
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All-of-a-Kind Family

Sydney Taylor · 189 pages

The life of a Jewish family with seven children growing up on New York's Lower East Side in the early twentieth century is the subject of this series. It includes All-of-a-Kind Family Downtown, All-of-a-Kind Family Uptown, Ella of All-of-a-Kind Family, and others.

NostalgicMiddle GradeMultigenerational FamilyCharming
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Magic for Marigold

L.M. Montgomery · 328 pages

Multigenerational FamilyComing of AgeNostalgicHeartwarming
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Betsy Was a Junior

Maud Hart Lovelace · 274 pages

Coming of AgeNostalgicMiddle GradeHeartwarming
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Theater Shoes

Noel Streatfeild

Multigenerational FamilyComing of AgeMiddle GradeHeartwarming
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Cold Sassy Tree

Olive Ann Burns · 395 pages

Had difficulty with the unfamiliar language spoken by the characters, but once I was able to figure it out I enjoyed the family dynamics. Upon finishing this book, I immediately borrowed "Leaving Cold Sassy".

NostalgicCharmingComing of AgeHeartwarming
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Jo's Boys

Louisa May Alcott · 288 pages

This sequel to Alcott's "Little Women" and "Little Men" chronicles the return of the classmates of Plumfield, Jo's school for boys. Readers reencounter Nat, the orphaned street musician, now a conservatory student; restless Dan, back from the gold mines of California; business-minded Tom; and other old friends.

NostalgicHeartwarmingCharmingComing of Age
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Changes for Molly: A Winter Story

Valerie Tripp · 67 pages

Molly's excitement at performing in a big show is exceeded only by the announcement that her father is returning home from the war.

NostalgicMultigenerational FamilyMiddle GradeHeartwarming
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The Secret Garden

Frances Hodgson Burnett · 256 pages

A ten-year-old orphan comes to live in a lonely house on the Yorkshire moors where she discovers an invalid cousin and the mysteries of a locked garden.

NostalgicComing of AgeMiddle GradeHeartwarming
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Ramona Quimby, Age 8

Beverly Cleary · 190 pages

Ramona Quimby, Age 8 (1981) is a novel by Beverly Cleary in the Ramona series. Ramona Quimby is in the third grade, now at a new school, and making some new friends. With Beezus in Jr. High and Mr. Quimby going back to college, Ramona feels the pressure with everyone counting on her to manage at school by herself and get along with Willa Jean after school every day. Ramona Quimby, Age 8 was named

Middle GradeNostalgicCharmingHeartwarming
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Roller Skates

Ruth Sawyer · 186 pages

Liberated for a year from her parents' restrictions, ten-year-old Lucinda discovers true freedom in the care of her temporary guardians as she roller skates around the streets of turn-of-the-century New York.

NostalgicMiddle GradeCharmingHeartwarming
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Molly Story Collection

Valerie Tripp, Nick Backes, Keith Skeen

NostalgicMiddle GradeCharmingHeartwarming
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Samantha's Surprise: A Christmas Story

Maxine Rose Schur · 66 pages

The two weeks before Christmas are filled with activity as Samantha finishes her homemade presents and makes preparations for visiting relatives.

NostalgicHeartwarmingCharmingMiddle Grade
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Old Town in the Green Groves: Laura Ingalls Wilder's Lost Little House Years

Cynthia Rylant · 164 pages

After grasshoppers ruin the crops, eight-year-old Laura Ingalls and her family leave Plum Creek and move to Burr Oak, Iowa, where they experience life in a small town and help manage a hotel.

Multigenerational FamilyNostalgicMiddle GradeHeartwarming
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The Watsons Go to Birmingham - 1963

Christopher Paul Curtis · 239 pages

The ordinary interactions and everyday routines of the Watsons, an African American family living in Flint, Michigan, are drastically changed after they go to visit Grandma in Alabama in the summer of 1963.

Middle GradeMultigenerational FamilyComing of AgeHeartwarming
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Starring Sally J. Freedman as Herself

Judy Blume · 298 pages

After 10-year-old Jewish Sally Jane Freedman's brother Douglas gets sick with a kidney infection, her family temporarily moves for a year after World War II.

NostalgicMiddle GradeHeartwarmingCharming
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Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe

Fannie Flagg · 403 pages

Folksy and fresh, endearing and affecting, Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe is a now-classic novel about two women: Evelyn, who’s in the sad slump of middle age, and gray-headed Mrs. Threadgoode, who’s telling her life story. Her tale includes two more women—the irrepressibly daredevilish tomboy Idgie and her friend Ruth—who back in the thirties ran a little place in Whistle Stop, Ala

NostalgicMultigenerational FamilyCharmingHeartwarming
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Heidi Grows Up

Charles Tritten · 192 pages

Coming of AgeHeartwarmingMiddle GradeCharming
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The Bridgertons: Happily Ever After

Julia Quinn · 374 pages

Julia Quinn's Bridgerton series remains one of the most beloved among historical romance readers, and this collection of “second epilogues” -- stories that take place after the original books end -- offer fans more from their favorite characters. Previously published as ebook originals, these second epilogues include those from On the Way to the Wedding; It's in His Kiss; When He Was Wicked; To Si

Multigenerational FamilyNostalgicCharmingHeartwarming
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Farm Boy

Michael Morpurgo · 111 pages

For years, Joey was a war horse, pulling ambulance carts and artillery through the battlefields of World War I. Finally, he returned to Albert and the farm. Now, decades later, Albert's son loves to tell his own grandson stories about the remarkable horse, including its feats in the war and of the time the family risked everything betting that Joey could win a daring race.

NostalgicMultigenerational FamilyMiddle GradeHeartwarming
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In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson

Bette Bao Lord · 169 pages

In 1947, a Chinese child comes to Brooklyn where she becomes Americanized at school, in her apartment building, and by her love for baseball.

Coming of AgeMiddle GradeCharmingHeartwarming
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Circle of Friends

Maeve Binchy · 560 pages

It began with Benny Hogan and Eve Malone, growing up, inseparable, in the village of Knockglen. Benny--the only child, yearning to break free from her adoring parents...Eve--the orphaned offspring of a convent handyman and a rebellious blueblood, abandoned by her mother's wealthy family to be raised by nuns. Eve and Benny--they knew the sins and secrets behind every villager's lace curtains

NostalgicComing of AgeHeartwarmingCharming
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The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate

Jacqueline Kelly · 340 pages

Calpurnia Virginia Tate is eleven years old in 1899 when she wonders why the yellow grasshoppers in her Texas backyard are so much bigger than the green ones.With a little help from her notoriously cantankerous grandfather, an avid naturalist, she figures out that the green grasshoppers are easier to see against the yellow grass, so they are eaten before they can get any larger. As Callie explores

Multigenerational FamilyComing of AgeMiddle GradeCharming
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