In 1942 New York City, fifteen-year-old Iris grieves for her mother who committed suicide and for the loss of her life of privilege, and secretly helps her father with his detective business since he, having lost a leg at Pearl Harbor, struggles to make ends meet.

In 1963 at a Maine summer camp, fourteen-year-old Amy Becker is forced to face the camp bully, Rory, family secrets revealed by her cousin Robin, and worry about having to leave her mentally challenged brother with their cold, harsh mother.

At a Charlottesville, Virginia, boarding school, fourteen-year-old Laurel realizes that she shares her deceased mother's connection with flowers, but as she begins to learn their ancient language and share it with other students, she discovers powers that are beyond her control.

After her father's sudden death and a break-up with her best friends, seventeen-year-old Lexi has no choice but to leave New York City seeking her long-absent mother, rumored to be in Florida with a traveling circus, where she just may discover her destiny.

Sixteen-year-old Undine, hearing her presumably deceased father calling to her and feeling a strange force growing inside her, travels to the sea to discover the depths of her magical powers.

"Belle is convinced that she has the wrong name, as she lacks her sisters' awe-inspiring beauty. So she withdraws from society, devoting her time to wood carving. Secretly, Belle longs to find the fabled Heartwood Tree...During a fierce storm, Belle's father stumbles upon the mysterious Heartwood--and encounters a terrifying and lonely Beast. Now Belle must carve the Heartwood to save her father, and learn to see not with the eyes of her mind, but...

Fourteen-year-old Samantha and her mother move to Jackson, Mississippi, in 1962 after her father is killed in Vietnam, and during the year they spend there Sam encounters both love and hate as she learns about photography from a new friend of her mother's and witnesses the prejudice and violence of the segregationists of the South.

Paul Revere's daughter describes her father's "rides" and the intelligence network of the patriot community prior to the American Revolution.

When New York City fourteen-year-old Corina impulsively reveals incriminating information about her multi-billionaire father, he replaces her unlimited funds with an antiquated cell phone, a Metrocard, and a twenty-dollar weekly allowance.

They find her on the edge of the roof of her school. No on believes that she wasn't about to jump. But then again, no one knows Sparrow very well. She keeps good grades. She keeps to herself. Though she wishes she could find a friend, she has no idea how that might happen. So sometimes she goes where the birds gather, and she waits, waits for them to come get her, gather her up, take her with them, take her high above the school, above the city, above...