"A dangerous journey. A distant dream. Based on a true story. It is 1913, and twelve-year-old Petra Luna's mama has died while the Revolution rages in Mexico. Before her papa is dragged away by soldiers, Petra vows to him that she will take care of her abuelita, her little sister, Amelia, and her baby brother, Luisito, until they can be reunited. They flee north as their town burns, searching for safe harbor in a world that offers none. Each night,...

When his older brother joins the army during World War II in order to escape the rages of an authoritarian father, eleven-year-old Foster fights his battles on the homefront.

During the Great Depression, while their father is away looking for work, eight-year-old Patrick and thirteen-year-old Roy create a machine to help their mother make ends meet, even as she is helping tramps.

In 1941, circumstances bring together Brick, a boy from New York's apple country, and Mariel, a young girl made shy by her bout with polio, and the two make a journey from Brooklyn back to help Brick's elderly neighbors save their apple crop and to help Mariel learn about her past.

After breaking his leg, eleven-year-old Nate feels useless because he cannot work on the family farm in nineteenth-century Nebraska, so when his father brings home an orphan boy to help with the chores, Nate feels even worse.

In 1974 at her new San Francisco school, nine-year-old Julie does not want to tell her class about her parents' divorce, or to tell her sister about messing up her school assignment, but when she breaks her finger playing basketball and her whole family rallies around her, she realizes the importance of telling the truth.

Fourteen-year-old Princess Meret is unhappy with her future as consort of the Egyptian god Amun, especially after meeting Hector, a handsome Greek soldier, but when she is kidnapped, it is up to Hector and a young servant boy to help rescue her with the aid of the goddess Taweret.

In 1893 New York, thirteen-year-old Maks, a newsboy, teams up with Willa, a homeless girl, to clear his older sister, Emma, from charges that she stole from the brand new Waldorf Hotel, where she works. Includes historical notes.

In 1945, ten-year-old Molly does not want to share her puppy Bennett with her brother but finds she might need to change her mind.

Cousins Patrick and Beth work to protect runaway slave Sally as they travel by train with President-elect Abraham Lincoln through northern New York state in 1861 aboard The Lincoln Special, getting assistance from Mrs. Mary Todd Lincoln and her son Willie along the way.