The summer before eighth grade, Alice tries to confront her fears, not the least of which is a fear of deep water.

"Dear Dad: Love, Nelson is a glimpse into the life, family, struggles, hopes, and questions of Nelson-and the more than five million other children in the US who have experienced parental incarceration. Told through letters he writes his father, Nelson shares his feelings, thoughts, wishes, and happenings, from the celebrations they've had to the progress Nelson has made on the car they were fixing to how excited he is to have Dad coming home." --publisher's...

Claire Biggs, the epitome of sunshine, has always loved Gibsie, her brother's friend and her favorite neighbor. She has always seen a side to him that no one else seems to notice. She becomes determined to tame her wild-at-heart childhood best friend.

A young girl enjoys the blessings, foods, and gifts of Hanukkah spent with her family, but on the last night there is no present for her to unwrap.

Fourth-grader Alice tries unsuccessfully to avoid embarrassing mistakes and to establish better relations with her older brother Lester. Can someone die of embarrassment? Everything seems to go wrong for Alice: whether it's being seen in her underpants by Donald Sheavers from next door or saying dumb things in class. Worst of all, she's managed to get Lester really mad at her. Will life ever get any easier? Fourth grade can't end soon enough for Alice!...

In World War II-era England, Michael learns about his black British Army soldier grandfather, a World War I officer who risked his life to save wounded men but who did not receive special commendations because of his race.

A year after vanishing from a party, screaming and drenched in blood, seventeen-year-old Annaliese Rose Gordon appears hundreds of miles from home with no memory, but a haunting certainty that she is actually another girl trapped in Annaliese's body.

When eleven-year-old Matteo literally sprouts leaves and grows bark during one of his baseball games, he digs into his family tree to find out what it all means.

As the lone girl on the Ashton High wrestling team Melinda Radford has plenty of complication in her life from her team, her coach, and her family, but then an off-hand comment makes things even worse.

Sixteen-year-old Ebony is devastated when her family moves from Houston to her grandmother's house in the country, but in her new small Texas town, she pushes her boundaries until she realizes she may have gone too far.