"Alexis, a 12-year-old native Hawaiian, is terrified of the ocean and the creatures that live there because of an encounter she had early in her life with a moray eel. Her mother, a civilian contractor for the Navy, likes to give Alexis elaborate puzzles to solve when she's away on assignments. One puzzle gets her working for her grumpy neighbor, who everyone calls Uncle Tanaka, helping him gather marine samples. She has to use all her problem-solving...

"When her mom disappears from their small Texas town, paleontology-loving Haven is determined to find her. But as she uncovers truths about her mom's identity, Haven also uncovers a monstrous family secret. Her mom can take the shape of a human and, in the right environment, also turn into an amphibious creature known as a kitskara. And now that she's growing up, Haven is discovering she has this ability, too. This newfound identity is her only clue...

Ramona at 7 1/2 sometimes feels discriminated against by being the youngest in the family.

Fourth-grader Amber Brown must make some important decisions when her mother and Max move their wedding date up and prepare to buy a house together, while her father makes some bad choices of his own.

Dory's separation anxiety from her mother turns into a ghostly, goofy escapade.

In the days before the Russian Revolution, twelve-year-old Feodora sets out to rescue her mother when the Tsar's Imperial Army imprisons her for teaching tamed wolves to fend for themselves.

Addy and her mother forgo their Christmas plans to help the newly freed slaves arriving in Philadelphia during the Civil War.