In an interview with a young journalist, World Cup hero, El Gato, describes his youth in the Brazilian rain forest and the events, experiences, and people that helped make him a great goalkeeper and renowned soccer star.

"Taja Brown, growing up in a conservative and tightly knit African American family, battles family expectations to discover a sense of self and find her unique voice and purpose"--

Alaine Beauparlant has heard about Haiti all her life... ...but the stories were always passed down from her dad--and her mom, when she wasn't too busy with her high-profile newscaster gig. But when Alaine's life goes a bit sideways, it's time to finally visit Haiti herself. What she learns about Haiti's proud history as the world's first black republic (with its even prouder people) is one thing, but what she learns about her own family is another....

"Ever since she got pregnant freshman year, Emoni Santiago's life has been about making the tough decisions, doing what has to be done for her daughter and her abuela. The one place she can let all that go is in the kitchen. There, she lets her hands tell her what to cook, listening to her intuition and adding a little something magical every time, turning her food into straight-up goodness. Even though she's always dreamed of working in a kitchen...

Mani Semilla is determined not to go to Guatemala until she finds letters written between her mother and her journalist aunt who has disappeared, revealing both the beauty of the country and its history of violence against women, which slowly transforms her into a budding activist.

Danny Dawson lives on a cattle station in the Australian outback. The whole station is preparing for the annual cattle muster, and normally Danny would be bursting with excitement. But everything is different now. Because Danny's beloved older brother died in an accident last year, and nobody will talk about it. Because his teenage sister is pregnant and won't tell anyone who the father is. Because his mother can't cope with any of it and has hired...

Meg Finn is in trouble. She's dead, but not at peace--she's in limbo, her good deeds perfectly balanced against her bad deeds; Heaven or Hell wait, a tip of the scale away. So she's back on Earth trying to tip the scale to the good by helping her last victim, and her former "partner" is also back, trying to force her to tip the scale to the bad.

A young black boy learns the pain of humiliation and anger when his father is given an unjust jail sentence for stealing a ham from a white man. Learning to read and discovering that things do not die but become part of other things, brings the youngster new hope.