The Hope Chest — Karen Schwabach

Eleven-year-old Violet has one goal in mind when she runs away from home: to find her sister, Chloe, in New York City. But Chloe is no longer there. She's moved on to Tennesee where she's fighting for the right of women to vote. As Violet's journey grows longer, her single-minded pursuit of reuniting with her sister changes. Before long she is standing side-by-side with her new friends -- suffragists, socialists, and colored people -- the type of people whom her parents would not approve. This stirring depiction of the very end of the women's suffrage battle in America is sure to please readers who like their historical fiction fast-paced and action-packed. American Girls fans will fall hard for Violet and her less-than-proper friends.