Jess Aarons, a ten-year-old boy in rural Virginia, finds a beloved and unexpected friend in Leslie, the new girl at school, with whom he creates a secret kingdom in the woods and from whom he learns lifelong lessons when tragedy strikes.
Finding herself in the latest and most intolerable of a string of foster homes, an eleven-year-old who prides herself on her cleverness and unmanageability tries gamely to provoke the adults around her.
When Angel's mother leaves her and her younger brother with their poor great-grandmother, the eleven-year-old girl with the weight of the world on her shoulders meets a mysterious stranger who teaches her about the stars.
Josh, who has just moved to Vermont with his mother, stepfather, and new baby brother, must deal with the bullying of a neighbor boy and discovers that his dog, whom he hears talking with other dogs, is also facing a bully of his own.
When Marvin refuses to go back to his new school because he is the only one in his class who cannot read, his father decides to help him learn by reading with him.