In New England in the late nineteenth century, a fatherless family, happy in spite of its impoverished condition, is befriended by a very rich gentleman and his young son.

Second-grader Freddy hates being the middle one in the family until he gets a part in the school play.

Julie would remember her happy days at Aunt Cordelia's forever. But there were sad times too - the painful jealousy Julie felt after her sister married, and the disappointment of her first love.

Sixteen-year-old Miles and his family must flee their Minneapolis home and begin a new life in the wilderness after a chain of cataclysmic volcanic explosions creates dangerous conditions in their city.

Abandoned by their mother, four children begin a search for a home and an identity. It's still true. That's the first thing James Tillerman says to his sister Dicey every morning. It's still true that their mother has abandoned the four Tillerman children somewhere in the middle of Connecticut. It's still true they have to find their way, somehow, to Great-aunt Cilla's house in Bridgeport, which may be their only hope of staying together as a family....

Ramona's life changes the moment Howie Kemp's mysterious uncle arrives from Saudi Arabia. Howie and his sister, Willa Jean, talk only about Uncle Hobart. Ramona's mother makes secret phone calls and stops eating dessert, and Aunt Bea is hiding something, too. Whatever surprises are in store, Ramona is determined to be happy and helpful. Whether she's pleasant, brave, or blunderful, she's always wonderful Ramona--forever!" -- Back cover.

A story that hits the high and low points of a working mother's life as seen from Ramona's seven-and-a-half-year-old viewpoint. Ramona sometimes feels discriminated against by being the youngest in the family.

In the wake of his parents' separation, ten-year-old Billy seems to have continual conflicts with his father, who is also his basketball coach, but his quiet, younger brother Ben, a piano prodigy, is having even more trouble adjusting, and only Billy seems to notice.

On a summer visit to her grandmother's cottage by the ocean, twelve-year-old Martha gains perspective on the death of a classmate, on her relationship with her grandmother, on her feelings for an older boy, and on her plans to be a writer.

Inexplicable events start to occur when sixteen-year-old twins Tennyson and Brontë befriend a troubled and misunderstood outcast, aptly nicknamed Bruiser, and his little brother, Cody.