Twelve-year-old Jonathan Grisby has been sent to the Slabhenge Reformatory School for Troubled Boys, a former lunatic asylum that is currently run by a sadist who enjoys punishing the boys and setting them against each other. But when a lightning strike kills all the adults, the boys find themselves suddenly free--and trapped on Scar Island, which seems to be sinking into the ocean.

At Hellenweiler, a reformatory for second-offenders, fourteen-year-old Hal Mitchell will soon be free if he can avoid the gang violence of his fellow inmates, but the real enemy may lie elsewhere.

When a fellow student is murdered, Jenna Dallas and Adam Cole, who discovered the body, launch their own investigation and discover that everyone in the community of Gardiners Bay has something to hide. When Jenna Dallas and Adam Cole find Colleen O'Dell's body floating off the shore of their coastal town, the community of Gardiners Bay is shaken. But even more shocking is the fact that her drowning was no accident. When Jenna's best friend becomes...

Phoebe, Teal, and Robin find themselves trapped at Dr. Foreman's School for Girls where the guards are ruthless and Dr. Foreman delights in horrific punishments, causing the girls to join forces and fight back in order to survive.