In the summer of 1859, fifteen-year-old Annie travels to the Maryland farm where her father, John Brown, is secretly assembling his provisional army prior to their raid on the United States arsenal at nearby Harpers Ferry.
When her father hatches a plan to bring publicity to their small Tennessee town by arresting a local high school teacher for teaching about evolution, the resulting 1925 Scopes trial prompts fifteen-year-old Frances to rethink many of her beliefs about religion and truth, as well as her relationship with her father.
While her mother undergoes treatment for cancer, thirteen-year-old Ginny is sent to live with her father in England, where she becomes part of an archeological experiment to investigate life during the Iron Age.
At Alveara boarding school in Belfast at the start of World War II, thirteen-year-old Jessie must deal with her suspicions about a teacher whose father was German and with her worries about her own father's drinking problem.
Maddie loves it when her father plays scary games with her, but when he is too busy with work she turns into a "Maddie Scientist" and builds herself a monster dad that she thinks will be more fun.
Fox Street means everything to Mo Wren, who is nearly eleven, and so she is very upset when a land developer offers to buy her father's house, especially since she has not yet found the fox she is sure lives in the nearby ravine.
Worried about her father's trip to the hospital, Rosy goes to play with the special dollhouse he built for her and finds Thistle, a very messy and mischievous fairy who needs a place to stay while her injured wing mends.
Realizing that her father's lack of work has endangered her family, nine-year-old Juice decides that she must return to school and learn to read in order to help their chances of surviving and keeping their house.
A fictional, illustrated journal in which eleven-year-old Amelia records her hopes, fears, and impressions while attending a family reunion with her long-estranged dad, and meeting many of his relatives for the first time.
