Although the other girls at middle school make fun of Rafaella and she avoids her when they are around, Lucy gradually gets to know her and her "foreign" family and is devastated when she learns the result of all the teasing Rafaella has endured.
In seventeenth-century Scotland, sixteen-year-old Maggie Blair is sentenced to be hanged as a witch but escapes to the home of her uncle, placing him and his family in great danger as she risks her life to save them all from the king's men.
On her way to her grandfather's house with a bunch of bananas, Beatrice has a series of mishaps with jungle animals who each substitute something new for what she is carrying.
Her father's involvement with the Kurdish resistance movement in Iraq forces thirteen-year-old Tara to flee with her family over the border into Iran, where they face an unknown future.
A collection of nine traditional Iraqi folktales that describes magical creatures and strange encounters, and includes selections entitled "The Pots that had Babies, " "The Suit of Stone, " and others.
Anna's teen years bring maturity and fulfillment as she experiences the birth and death of a loved and loving hydrocephalic brother, changing ideas about character in both boyfriends and girlfriends, and working with a child with Down's syndrome.
