At odds with his sister, Tina, fourteen, who says their father murdered their mother, Todd, fifteen, who claims it was self-defense, begins to lose faith in their father when he pressures Todd to get Tina to change her story, and being in separate foster homes only makes things harder.

Thirteen-year-old Mary Lou grows up considerably during the summer while learning about romance, homesickness, death, and her cousin's search for his biological father.

After flunking sixth-grade English, basketball prodigy Stanford Wong must struggle to pass his summer-school class, keep his failure a secret from his friends, and satisfy his academically demanding father.

"A boy deals with the recent loss of his mother and his odyssey to find a date for the end-of-year school dance"-- New Jersey seventh grader and class clown Denny Murphy has just lost his mother, his father is uncommunicative, he is in trouble with his teachers, and to top it all off, his best friend has a scheme to get dates for the end-of-year school dance.