When I was in third and fourth grade, the library was in easy walking distance from my house. I have fond memories of finally being a confident reader and being allowed to choose my own books. There were a series of historical fiction titles that I fondly remember. They were the "Little Maid" books, and my favorite was The Little Maid of Lexington by Alice Turner Curtis. The little maid wasn't a term describing a servant, but a girl who witnessed important events during Colonial times. (As an adult, I was astonished to find that while I was reading these books in the late 1950s, they were originally written between 1913 and 1937. Hmmm...there weren't as many books published for children then. Or, my public library never discarded many!) After I read one of the titles, I always looked for a biography about the hero from history - George Washington, Paul Revere, or Benjamin Franklin. There weren't many biographies written for intermediate readers during my childhood. Times have changed...