Ben, warned away from the ocean by his grandfather and parents, meets Ray, an aging surfer dying of cancer, who shares his skills and philosophy of surfing with Ben.
When everyone tries to get thirteen-year-old Joanna off the boys ice hockey team, including Ben, her best friend since kindergarten, Jo resolves to deal with the problems caused by her participation.
Determined to write a novel during the summer before he starts high school, thirteen-year-old Jackie struggles with his inability to finish anything and with the advice of others.
Determined to take her father's coal-carrying barge on the C & O Canal from Cumberland, Maryland, to Georgetown in D.C., twelve-year-old Kate learns hurtful truths about herself.
Raised by a great-grandmother and a bunch of beauty shop buddies, fourteen-year-old Abbey resolves to overcome her unhappy childhood and disillusionment with the mother who deserted her.
When everyone tries to get thirteen-year-old Joanna off the boys ice hockey team, including Ben, her best friend since kindergarten, Jo resolves to deal with the problems caused by her participation.
Fifteen-year-old Katie Durham learns about courage and independence as she befriends a blind girl and fights to become a jockey and ride in the Kentucky Derby despite her own physical handicap.
