Ten-year-old Leo loves being a newsboy in San Francisco -- not only does he get to make some money to help his family, he's free to explore the amazing, hilly city as it changes and grows with the new century. Horse-drawn carriages share the streets with shiny new automobiles, new businesses and families move in every day from everywhere, and anything seems possible. But early one spring morning, everything changes. Leo's world is shaken -- literally...

"Mia Tang has a lot of secrets. Number 1: She lives in a motel, not a big house. Every day, while her immigrant parents clean the rooms, ten-year-old Mia manages the front desk of the Calivista Motel and tends to its guests. Number 2: Her parents hide immigrants. And if the mean motel owner, Mr. Yao, finds out they've been letting them stay in the empty rooms for free, the Tangs will be doomed. Number 3: She wants to be a writer. But how can she when...

Esperanza and her mother are forced to leave their life of wealth and privilege in Mexico to go work in the labor camps of Southern California, where they must adapt to the harsh circumstances facing Mexican farm workers on the eve of the Great Depression.

Join eleven-year-old Josh as he leaves his New Jersey home for the rural northern California town where his cousins live. Still reeling from the life-changing challenges that propelled him and his mother across the country, Josh struggles to adapt to a more rustic, down-to-earth lifestyle that couldn't be more different from the one he is used to. Josh and his cousin bond over tacos and reptiles and jokes, but on a trip into the nearby forest, they...

A young Indian girl, Zia, caught between the traditional world of her mother and the present world of the Mission, is helped by her aunt Karana, whose story was told in "The Island of the Blue Dolphins."

When Shelley leaves Oregon to spend the winter in California, she feels she is the happiest girl in the world, for in her new high school, she meets Philip--the "only boy." A sixteen-year-old girl gains perspective into herself and her family when whe leaves her comfortable Oregon home and spends a year visiting with friends in California... She learns, in the midst of the friendly Michie family, that there are many ways to be oneself, and many different...

"The Flower Power girls plot to bring two of their teachers together in a matchmaking scheme at their school's "Kids Night In.""--

""Everyone is invited to a birthday party at her parent's candy store, except Stella Batts. She needs to figure out to be a pleasant hostess when she's not on the guest list"--

With the help of a very special pit bull puppy, twelve-year-old Hannah adjusts to moving from Michigan to California and makes friends, despite the birthmark that makes her self-conscious.

A fictionalized account of Charley (Charlotte) Parkhurst who ran away from an orphanage, posed as a boy, moved to California, voted for President making her the first woman to vote in that state, and fooled everyone by her appearance.