Children/Young Adult

• Father Time and the Day Boxes, illustrated by Robert Andrew Parker, 1985.
• A Regular Rolling Noah, illustrated by Stephen Gammell, 1986.
• A Throne in Goose Rock, 1987.
• One Lucky Girl, illustrated by Irene Trivas, 2000.
• Mother to Tigers, illustrated by Peter Catalanotto, 2002.
• Gina.Jamie.Father.Bear., 2002.
• Sonny's House of Spies, 2004.

Picture Books

• A B Cedar: An Alphabet of Trees, illustrated by Tom Parker, 1989.
• Together, illustrated by Vera Rosenberry, 1989.
• Come a Tide, illustrated by Stephen Gammell, 1990.
• Basket, illustrated by Mary Szilagyi, 1990.
• Cecil's Story, illustrated by Peter Catalanotto, 1991.
• The Outside Inn, illustrated by Vera Rosenberry, 1991.
• Who Came Down that Road?, illustrated by Peter Catalanotto, 1992.
• Dreamplace, illustrated by Peter Catalanotto, 1993.
• Five Live Bongos, illustrated by Jacqueline Rogers, 1994.
• Mama Is a Miner, illustrated by Peter Catalanotto, 1994.
• Ada's Pal, illustrated by Marguerite Casparian, 1996.
• A Wordful Child, photographs by Ann W. Olson, 1996.
• A Day at Damp Camp, illustrated by Peter Catalanotto, 1996.
• A Sign, illustrated by Chris K. Soentpiet, 1998.
• A Traveling Cat, illustrated by Paul Brett Johnson, 1998.
• Book, illustrated by Peter Catalanotto, 1999.
• Weaving the Rainbow, illustrated by Stephanie Anderson, 2004.
• When You Get Little and I Get Big, illustrated by Peter Catalanotto, 2006.
• No Dessert Forever!, 2006.

Novels

• Borrowed Children, 1988.
• Red Rover, 1989 (published as The Stranger I Left behind Me, 1997)
• Here and Then, 1994.
• With a Hammer for My Heart, 1996.

Poetry

• Mountain, 1983.
• Growing Light, 1987.
• Catalpa, 1993.
• Counting on the Woods, photographs by Ann W. Olson, 1998.

Miscellaneous Works

• Braids (two-act play), first produced in Lexington, KY, at Transylvania University, 1985.
• Choices: Stories for Adult New Readers, 1989.
• (Editor, with Jim Wayne Miller and Gurney Norman) A Gathering at the Forks: Fifteen Years of the Hindman Settlement School Appalachian Writers Workshop, 1993.
• (Editor, with Bob Henry Baber and Gurney Norman; and author of introduction) Old Wounds, New Words: Poems from the Appalachian Poetry Project, 1994.
• Where I'm From: Where Poems Come From, photographs by Robert Hoskins, 1999.
• (Editor) A Kentucky Christmas, 2003.
• You and Me and Home Sweet Home, 2012.

• Lamont Hall Award, Andrew Mountain Press, 1983, for Mountain
• Golden Kite Award, Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, 1989, for Borrowed Children
• Kentucky Bluegrass Award, for Basket
• Andrew Mountain Press Award, for Mountain
• Book of the Year Award, Appalachian Writers Association, for Catalpa
• Best Books of the Year citation, Publishers Weekly, for Who Came Down that Road?
• Jesse Stuart Media Award, Kentucky School Media Association, for body of work.