NCW Libraries

Offers a history of the river, describes Twain's experiences as a riverboat pilot, and shares tall tales, character sketches, and observations about the Mississippi.

"The eagerly awaited return of master American storyteller Rinker Buck, Life on the Mississippi is an epic, enchanting blend of history and adventure in which Buck builds a wooden flatboat from the grand 'flatboat era' of the 1800s and sails it down the Mississippi River, illuminating the forgotten past of America’s first western frontier. Seven years ago, readers around the country fell in love with a singular American voice: Rinker Buck,...

When riverboat captain Doctor John Pearly learns that his nephew Duke has killed a man in self-defense, he urges Duke to turn himself in. But Duke's only chance for freedom is the testimony of a half-crazed witness, New Moses, who has disappeared upriver.

In 1932, Minnesota's Lincoln School is a pitiless place where hundreds of Native American children forcibly separated from their parents, are sent to be educated. It is also home to Odie O'Banion, a lively boy whose exploits upset the superintendent. Forced to flee, Odie and his brother Albert, their bestfriend Mose, and a brokenhearted little girl named Emmy, steal away in a canoe, heading for the mighty Mississippi. During one unforgettable summer,...

A prideful woman and a drunkard captain seek restoration and find it, by God's grace, in each other.

"From Percival Everett--a recipient of the NBCC Lifetime Achievement Award and finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, Booker Prize, and numerous PEN awards--comes James, a retelling of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, both harrowing and ferociously funny, told from the enslaved Jim's point of view. When the enslaved Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a man in New Orleans, separated from his wife and daughter forever, he decides to hide on nearby...

Huckleberry Finn, a rambuctious boy adventurer chafing under the bonds of civilization, escapes his humdrum world and his selfish, plotting father by sailing a raft down the Mississippi River. Accompanying him is Jim, a slave running away from being sold. Together the two strike a bond of friendship that takes them through harrowing events and thrilling adventures.

Retells the classic story of the adventures of a mischievous boy growing up in a Mississippi River town in the early nineteenth century.

Get to know Tom Sawyer and his friends as he gets into all kinds of shenanigans on the Mississippi River in this condensed video version of the classic tale.

Profiles the explorer who, upon hearing rumors of the Mississippi River, determined first to find it, then to claim it for France and establish French settlements from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico.