When Johanna shows up at the beginning of summer to house-sit next door to Finn, he has no idea of the profound effect she will have on his life by the time summer vacation is over.

Upon going to the doctor for a routine knee injury, foster child and aspiring NFL athlete Harrison learns that he has bone cancer.

Fifth grader Benny wants to focus on not flunking out of fifth grade, but he must also cope with his complicated home life with newly divorced parents, a mother who moves away, and a father with terminal lung cancer.

"Eleven-year-old Echo finds the courage to help her younger sister fight cancer, and, in the process, finds the love and support of an entire community"--

Thirteen-year-old Conor awakens one night to find a monster outside his bedroom window, but not the one from the recurring nightmare that began when his mother became ill--an ancient, wild creature that wants him to face truth and loss.

When her best friend's cancer returns in the summer of 1987, none of her usual pursuits--surfing, singing, or reading poetry--can keep thirteen-year-old Ava afloat.

Twelve-year-old Mischa "Ish" Love's longtime dream has been to someday live on Mars, but when she collapses on the first day of seventh grade, Ish receives a diagnosis which threatens her future plans.

Ben Coffin has never been one for making friends. As a former foster kid, he knows people can up and leave without so much as a goodbye. Ben prefers to spend his time with the characters in his favorite sci-fi books...until he rescues an abandoned mutt from the alley next-door to the Coney Island Library. Scruffy little Flip leads Ben to befriend a fellow book-lover named Halley-yes, like the comet-a girl unlike anyone he has ever met. Ben begins...

Twelve-year-old Ruby Clyde Henderson's life changes the day her mother's boyfriend holds up a convenience store, and her mother is wrongly jailed for assisting with the crime. Ruby and her pet pig, Bunny, find their way to her estranged Aunt Eleanor's home. Aunt Eleanor is an ornery nun who lives in the midst of a peach orchard on Paradise Ranch. With a little patience, she and Ruby begin to get along, but Eleanor has secrets of her own-secrets that...

Fourth-grader Ida B spends happy hours being home-schooled and playing in her family's apple orchard, until circumstances force her parents to sell part of the orchard and send her to public school.