Hans, a foundling raised by a grave robber, helps Countess Angela Gabriela, nearly thirteen, when she is torn away from her dream of being a professional puppeteer by an evil archduke out to destroy her and her parents.

Asked to travel to Egypt to help with an urgent archaeological expedition, Flat Stanley suspects that he might be helping grave robbers and must rely on his quick thinking, unique flatness, and new friends to make things right.

"Twelve-year-old Spade is ... headed for a lifetime of theft when his father comes up with the audacious plan to rob a grave in the Wyndhail castle cemetery. Spade and his brother get caught in a royal trap, and Spade must find the master of the Woegon: a deadly creature that is stalking the castle by night. Along the way, he meets Ember, the queen's niece, and together they race to solve the mystery of the legendary Deepstones and their connection...

Sixteen-year-old Joey's life takes a very strange turn when his mother's tragic death forces him to move from Chicago to rural Iowa with the father he has never known, and who is the town pariah.