The Anchor: P. Moore Proprietor

Winner of the AAUW Juvenile Literature Award and the Clark Cox Historical Award, and a finalist for the Foreword Magazine Book of the Year Award, this is the story of 15-year-old Polly Moore, who in 1764 finds herself running her ne'er-do-well father's tavern, The Anchor, in Brunswick, on the Cape Fear River in the North Carolina Colony. Since The Anchor is the center of village activity, Polly hears everything while she cooks and serves meals, runs the turpentine operations, and cares for her pregnant mother and two younger sisters. In this meticulously researched tale populated with historical figures, spunky Polly meets her challenges and grows wise beyond her years as the infamous Stamp Act disrupts her business and she forms her own opinions about slavery and the treatment of women.