While her father, a Navy Chief, is on ship duty for six months, nine-year-old Piper stays busy with new neighbors, Christmas at a spaceship beach house, a trip to New Orleans, and especially the upcoming Gypsy Club pet show.
After many years of watching the solemn lighting of seven candles at Rosh Hashanah, Eli finally learns how those candles represent his family's connection to the Holocaust in Lithuania.
Ice skater Mia St. Clair worries she may not be able to compete at Regionals after a family crisis threatens their family's finances and Mia's only shot at competitive skating.
Eleven-year-old Eileen always looks forward to August when her extended family gathers at the summerhouse for a month at the beach, but this year she is a bit reluctant to leave behind her first crush, and when she arrives she finds reality is not quite as good as her memories. Presented in simple free verse.
Janine is not looking forward to another boring summer on her parent's land in rural Texas, until Mr. Lunas, the man who saved her father's life in the war, arrives one day.
A young girl contrasts the exciting things she might someday do, like digging for dinosaur bones and swimming with dolphins, with her present-day activities of finding loose change in the sofa cushions and feeding her goldfish.
Until now, ten-year-old Ben has believed that life is made up of "all right" and "not all right" stuff, but when his father remarries and the couple adopts a Chinese baby, he wonders which kind of stuff will prevail.
