Intellectually and athletically gifted, TJ, a multiracial, adopted teenager, shuns organized sports and the gung-ho athletes at his high school until he agrees to form a swimming team and recruits some of the school's less popular students.

Fifteen-year-old Rose and seventeen-year-old Chase find a common bond in their troubled relationships with their parents, but as Chase's family life improves, Rose's becomes worse, pulling the couple apart.

Clyde has always taken his role of Rooster at Sunrise Farm very seriously, but when Fran the goat and her hyperactive kid, Rowdy, join the other animals, Clyde's feathers are ruffled by all the attention that Rowdy is getting, and soon he is crowing at all hours just to wake up the kid--until all the animals tell him that they have had enough of his grandstanding.

"Nora and Ben's younger sister, Birdy, loves to keep secrets. She surprises her family more than once: She hides a kitten in her room. She writes a beautiful poem. One day Birdy watches her mother spit into a tube, ready to send it off to find out more about herself and where her family came from. Birdy spits into a tube, too, when no one sees her. But when the test results come back, there is a surprise. Where did Birdy come from? Nora and Ben must...