Easton, Kelly

A number of changes are taking place in fifth-grader Aaron's life: business at the family pet shop is declining, forcing his parents to consider selling the store; luxury condominiums are going up on the land that houses a community garden, displacing the homeless woman who lives there; and Aaron gets to know his seemingly perfect classmate Sharon when she begins to tutor him in math.

Aaron is pursued by ex-convicts searching for a valuable turtle left at the pet store belonging to his parents.

In shock and unable to speak after being in a car accident in Oregon which killed his parents, seventeen-year-old Adam journeys across the country to his home in Rhode Island.

Ten-year-old Libby Aimes escapes her prison-like home by using a strange concoction of her father's, then tries to make her way to the boarding school of her dreams, aided by various people and animals.