Twelve-year-old Molly, who lives next door to a Japanese American family and whose cousin is a nurse in the Philippines, experiences many changes in her life when World War II breaks out.
When Skylar goes to summer school and tentatively begins to make some friends, she finally starts to get over the loss of her older sister and its terrible effects on the whole family.
While living in a boardinghouse managed by her mother and grandmother in Seattle in 1922, sixteen-year-old Clare decides her future at a time of limited opportunities for women.
Growing up in a house full of women, fourteen-year-old Grayling learns to deal with death, love, and the unanswered questions raised by her widowed mother's apparent abandonment.
When her father's death results in the loss of her house and garden and a move into a shabby apartment house, twelve-year-old Maryanne adjusts with the help of new friends and a new garden.
Fifteen-year-old Quinn, the middle child in a Depression-era working class family, learns some secrets about her beloved father, who has always been a source of strength and optimism for his family, friends, and neighbors.
While helping her mother clean out the family home in Puget Sound, fifteen-year-old Jane must deal with her hateful aunt and difficult cousin Ricki, a romance that cannot last, and secrets from her mother's past.
Sent to stay at a guest house near Puget Sound in 1941, Charlotte finds herself worried that she is losing her mind because of strange goings-on involving her adopted younger brother, a talking cat, a menacing couple of guests, and the mysterious woods nearby.
