As drought and the Depression threaten to destroy her family's South Dakota farm, twelve-year-old Christine discovers a wondrous cave, which becomes both her own private delight and a possible salvation for the family.
In Boston during the early days of the Great Depression, Annah's affluent lifestyle comes to an abrupt end when her father loses his banking job and Annah is sent to live with her aunt on a New Hampshire island where she meets a destitute but spunky girl named Dodie.
Robin finds a haven from the world and the confusion she feels in the velvet room of the deserted McGurdy mansion. The story is set in California during the American Great Depression.
The Depression causes Ruth's dream of college and a teaching career to be no longer certain, but at the same time it enables her to grow as a person as she encounters others in difficult situations.
Growing up in a small Ohio town in the 1930s, and acutely aware of his family's struggles to make ends meet, "Lighthorse" Lee finds his fate firmly tied to that of an intriguing rich girl and her family.
Surrounded by the warmth of new-found relatives and friends in a small Kentucky town, fourteen-year-old Sarah is eased of the sadness of her father's suicide in Detroit during the Depression and finds a way to celebrate his life.
