Author Information
William Durbin's Latest Book

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  • Bibliography:
    14 Books (1 Series)
  • First Book:
    February 1997
  • Latest Book:
    May 2022
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Full Series List in Order

Pierre La Page

1 - The Broken Blade (Feb-1997)
2 - Wintering (Jan-1999)

Multi-Author Series List

My Name Is America

The Journal of Sean Sullivan (Sep-1999)
The Journal of C.J. Jackson (Apr-2002)
The Journal of Otto Peltonen (Nov-2003)

Book List in Order: 14 titles



  • In 1800, thirteen-year-old Pierre La Page never dreams he'll be leaving Montreal to paddle a canoe twenty-four hundred miles. This is something older men, like his father, do. But when Pierre's father has an accident, Pierre quits school and enlists ...



  • Pierre, the 14-year-old hero of The Broken Blade, spends a winter with the North West Company in the wilderness of French Canada. The canoe-men build a camp beside an Ojibwa village, and Pierre learns the deep-winter survival skills and secrets of th...



  • August 17 Last night I found out why the Indians are still so dangerous.... Pa and his buddy Bill Flanagan were playing cribbage like they usually do before they go to bed, when a bullet whizzed through the side of our tent. I didn't even realize wh...



  • While working in the iron ore mines of Minnesota alongside his father, young Otto Peltonen captures in a journal his family's struggles and personal hardships as new arrivals to the "land of the free." 75,000 first printing....



  • In another compelling entry from criticially-acclaimed author William Durbin, we meet C.J. Jackson, a young farmer whose family is forced to abandon their farm and seek a new life in California.

    April 10, 1935

    The dust has been blowing ...



  • A portrait of the Finnish immigrant experience in Minnesota during the early twentieth century—now in paperback After journeying across the Atlantic with his mother and two sisters, young Otto Peltonen joins his father in the iron ore mines of n...



  • When the Soviet Union invades its tiny neighbor Finland in November 1939, Marko volunteers to help the war effort. Even though his leg was weakened by polio, he can ski well, and he becomes a messenger on the front line, skiing in white camouflage th...



  • According to thirteen-year-old Ben Ward's father, lumberjacks look forward to two things: mealtime and springtime. In the winter of 1898, Ben leaves school for a job as a cook's assistant to his father at the Blackwater Logging Camp. As Ben spends lo...



  • In the 1930s, some 6,000 Finnish Americans traveled to Karelia, a province in Northwestern Russia, hoping to leave the Depression behind and to establish a workers’ paradise. Based on these true events, The Darkest Evening chronicles the story of J...






  • For fifteen-year-old Matti Ojala and his family, Finnish immigrants in Minnesota in 1900, starting a new life in America is both a hardship and an opportunity. After a tragic mining accident kills their beloved uncle, the family turns away from on th...



  • The problems of the world are addressed by a wise martial arts philosopher who catches the ear of the President of the United States and the King of England in a not so distant future....



  • Thirteen-year-old Bella wants to be a lector just like her grandfather, who sits on a special platform in the cigar factory, reading great novels, the newspaper, and union news to workers as they roll the cigars. Being a lector is an important role i...



  • When 13-year-old Ben Ward left school to work with his Pa in a logging camp, a winter of peeling potatoes and setting tables wasn’t the adventure he had in mind. Still, come spring, he signs up for the log drive with his friend Nevers, wishing t...



  • Could you survive in a cave...for a whole year?That's the challenge facing fourteen-year-old Jacob. Set in Ukraine during the final months of World War II, THE HIDDEN ROOM is based on the true story of a Jewish family who escapes from the Nazis by ta...


Award-Winning Books by William Durbin

The Broken Blade
1998 Great Lakes Book Award -- Children's
Wintering
2009 Northeastern Minnesota Book Award -- Children's Literature


Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

William Durbin has published 14 books.

William Durbin does not have a new book coming out soon. The latest book, The Hidden Room, was published in May 2022.

The first book by William Durbin, The Broken Blade, was published in February 1997.

Yes. William Durbin has 1 series.