When twelve-year-old Gabe tries to hide his uncle's death from the local authorities, he is not prepared for what happens when this secret is discovered.

In 1860, having traveled with his young sister from New York to a foster home on a farm near St. Joseph, Missouri, ten-year-old Danny plots to get his newly-widowed foster father to send for and marry his mother.

Eleven-year-old Michael Patrick Kelly from New York City is sent to a foster home, a Missouri farm with a sadistic owner, a bullying son, and a number of secrets, one of which may be murder.

"Brian has always been anxious, whether at home, or in class, or on the basketball court. His dad tries to get him to stand up for himself and his mom helps as much as she can, but after he and his brother are placed in foster care, Brian starts having panic attacks. And he doesn't know if things will ever be 'normal' again... Ezra's always been popular. He's friends with most of the kids on his basketball team--even Brian, who usually keeps to himself....

Jarrett is used to the foster babies his mother takes in, but he's not used to sharing a room with a foster kid, especially a secretive boy who's a year older than he is.

Through letters to his little sister, who is living in a different foster home, sixth-grader Lonnie, also known as "Locomotion," keeps a record of their lives while they are apart, describing his own foster family, including his foster brother who returns home after losing a leg in the Iraq War.

A troublesome twelve-year-old orphan, staying with an elderly artist who needs her, remembers the only other time she was happy in a foster home, with a family that truly seemed to care about her.

Sarah knows the heartache that results from making wrong choices -- her own life is proof of that. But will she be able to convince a troubled young woman before time runs out? For, when the 12 days of Christmas have passed, it is possible the melody of Sarah's Song might bring out two miracles.

When her father dies, ten-year-old Rebecca is sent to live with the mother she's been brought up to believe had abandoned her and, through a growing relationship with a troubled foster child, begins to accept her mother. . . When her father dies, ten-year-old Rebecca is sent to live with the mother she's been brought up to believe had abandoned her and, through a growing relationship with a troubled foster child, begins to accept her mother and some...

When twelve-year-old Arcady is sent to a children's home after his parents are declared enemies of the state in Soviet Russia, soccer becomes a way to secure extra rations, respect, and protection but it may also be his way out if he can believe in and love another person, and himself.