Twelve-year-old Dani hates living in the small desert town of Rattler Springs, Nevada, but her plans to run away get complicated when a pesty young boy and an imaginative new girl decide they want to go along.

Sam Krupnik, mad at his mother because she won't let him wear his new plastic fangs in the house, decides to run away to Alaska.

Twelve-year-old Ben Brown runs away from the circus with his dog (and best friend) Sancho to seek out his missing father. He stumbles into the lives of young sisters Bab and Betty Moss who live with their mother in a quiet, tidy house. Ben's juggling skills, Sancho's trick of spelling his name with letter blocks, and the duo's other tricks of the trade charm the small family while Bab and Betty's whimsical antics and their mother's steady goodness...