Hughes, Dean

Toma and Malek, two thirteen-year-old Syrian children living in Beirut, struggle to provide for their families in a country that can be hostile against refugees like them, but they maintain hope that there is a way out of their seemingly impossible situation.

Thirteen-year-old Hadi Toma and his family are displaced. At least that s what the Lebanese government calls them and the thousands of other Syrian refugees that have flooded into Beirut. But as Hadi tries to earn money to feed his family by selling gum on the street corner, he learns that many people who travel the city don t think they re displaced--they think that they don t belong in this country either.

When Jacob loses his lucky charm, he's convinced he'll never be able to bat, field, or throw again until he finds it.

Seventh grader Ollie loses his self-confidence as a pitcher when his weird habit of talking to himself on the mound signals his pitches to the batters and draws the anger of some of his teammates.

Just as Thurlow feels that he may be able to lead the Scrappers single-handedly to the season championship, an injury sidelines him and threatens to take away their victory.

Recent high school graduate Rick Ward, undecided about his future and eager to escape his unhappy home life, joins the army and experiences the horrors of the war in Vietnam.

When Trent's best friend Robbie and another teammate on the Scrappers begin bragging about their baseball abilities, Trent worries that it will affect the team's play.

Two boys, one German and one American, are eager to join their respective armies during World War II, and their paths cross at the Battle of the Bulge.

While his father is missing in action in the Pacific during World War II, twelve-year-old Jay moves with his mother to small-town Utah, where he sees prejudice from both sides, as a part-Navajo himself and through an unlikely friendship with Japanese American Ken from the nearby internment camp.