Ten-year-old Libby Aimes escapes her prison-like home by using a strange concoction of her father's, then tries to make her way to the boarding school of her dreams, aided by various people and animals.
"From age six through her high school valedictory speech, believing she and her mother are wizards helps young Echo cope with poverty, hunger, her mother's drug abuse, and much more"--Provided by publisher.
Seventeen-year-old Annie Boot cannot seem to get away from her birth family despite living a moderately decent life with her foster parents. But she keeps getting drawn back into the drama. After an argument at a swim meet, her nephew goes missing, and it takes the combined efforts of everyone to put the pieces of the puzzle together to get him home safe.
Sixteen-year-old Elite is strained to concentrate on high school and raise her younger siblings for her crack-addict mother, but she finds her chance to help her family after winning a radio contest that allows her to spend face time with singer Haneef.
Five drug addicts, reluctantly facing rehabilitation, are forced to confront truths about their pasts as well as their darkest secrets with a group of strangers and learn how to live without getting high.
Teachers, therapists, law enforcement officials, and others try to piece together the facts in the aftermath of a tragedy in which Len, a high school senior fed up with being bullied, shoots and kills a football hero and then commits suicide.
Marooned in a broken-down Houston neighborhood--and in a Mexican immigrant family where making ends meet matters much more than making it to college--smart, talented Marisa seeks comfort elsewhere when her home life becomes unbearable.
