Many of Newton Starker's ancestors, including his mother, have been killed by lightning strikes, so when he enrolls at the eccentric Jerry Potts Academy of Higher Learning and Survival in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, he tries to be a model student so that he can avoid the same fate.
Escaping from Nazi Germany to Cuba in 1939, a young Jewish refugee dreams of finding his parents again, befriends a local girl with painful secrets of her own, and discovers that the Nazi darkness is never far away.
In the small town of Ondine, Louisiana, fourteen year old Iris uncovers family secrets when she conjures up the ghost of a boy missing for decades and decides to solve the mystery of his disappearance.
Carolina, having escaped from a foster home and living with Mr. Ray and Miss Latah on Harmony Farm, refuses to talk about the events surrounding the deaths of her parents and younger brother, and befriends a troubled runaway who she secretly feeds and takes the blame for his pranks.
In this story, told mostly through letters, children's book author, I. B. Grumpy, gets more than he bargained for when he rents a quiet place to write for the summer.
After being taken captive by a band of treasure seekers, thirteen year old Paul and his Abenaki grandfather must face a legendary Native American monster at the top of Mount Washington.
While living with her Gram in Vermont, eleven year old Aubrey writes letters as a way of dealing with losing her father and sister in a car accident, and then being abandoned by her grief-stricken mother.
