20th century

In the aftermath of Dr. King's assassination in 1968, Chicago fourteen-year-old Maxie longs to join the Black Panthers, whether or not her brother Raheem, ex-boyfriend Sam, or her friends like it, and is soon caught up in the violence of anti-war and civil rights demonstrations.

In 1968 Chicago, fourteen-year-old Sam Childs is caught in a conflict between his father's nonviolent approach to seeking civil rights for African Americans and his older brother, who has joined the Black Panther Party.

"Grace Lafferty, an eighteen-year-old wing-walker, thrills crowds with barrel rolls and loop-the-loops in hopes of making enough money to get to the 1922 World Aviation Expo"--.

Kitty Pangborn, having found work at a detective agency, owned by P.I. Dex Theroux, after her father commits suicide when the stock market crashes, finds herself trying to determine who is threatening a young equestrienne aiming to be the first horsewoman to compete at an Olympic level just before the 1932 Olympic Games.

In 1969, fourteen-year-old Mal enrolls in a rural California boarding school where he finds himself caught up in a plot involving endangered animals and an illegal pesticide.

Eleven-year-old April is delighted when President and Mrs. Hoover build a school near her Madison County, Virginia, home but her family's poverty, grief over the accidental death of her brother, and other problems may mean that April can never learn to read from the wonderful teacher, Miss Vest.