Because her Haitian family is too poor to be able to buy paints for her, eight-year-old Ti Marie finds her own way to create pictures that make the heart sing.

"Ruthie Smithens, a girl who loves fairy tales and happy endings, doesn't mind being 'goofy Ruthie' if it makes her best friend, Kit Kittredge, smile and forget about the hardships of the Depression. But when Ruthie finds out that the Kittredges are going to be evicted from their house, she makes up her mind to help..."--P. [4] of cover.

On a visit to Cincinnati from rural Kentucky during the Great Depression, Aunt Millie impresses Kit with her money-saving cleverness. Includes information on life in America during the Great Depression.

When spring arrives, Yasmin and her Baba plant a garden but Yasmin's flower seedling keeps wilting until her Nani sits in the sun, revealing to Yasmin what the plant needs.

When Daniel, Joy, and Kimani suddenly find themselves stranded on a mysterious island, they must work together to find clues hidden around that somehow hold the key to finding their way back home. Includes STEAM related activities.

In 1834 when a storm at sea destroys the slave ship on which she is a stowaway, twelve-year-old Emma musters all her resourcefulness to survive in the African jungle.

In 1935, while preparing to write a newspaper story about a theater production of Macbeth in her hometown of Cincinnati, twelve-year-old Kit discovers that a thief is stealing from the box office.

A resourceful young girl follows the Finders into the woods near her house to rescue her little red horse.

When her parents die in an accident in 1913, eleven-year-old Tanya decides to live alone, refusing charity from the people in her village, and supporting herself by selling muffins.

From back cover: "In the Pacific there is an island that looks like a big fish sunning itself in the sea. Around it blue dolphins swim, otters play, and sea birds abound. Once, Indians also lived on the island. And when they left and sailed to the east, one young girl was left behind.".