Introduces Lily Lapp who, beginning at age five, finds opportunities for blessings, laughter, learning, and mischief as she explores her Amish community, welcomes a new baby brother, begins school, and spends time with family and friends.

Eleven-year-old Gladys Gatsby loves food and cooking, so when she lands an assignment to write a restaurant review for a New York City newspaper, she will do anything to make it happen, even risk the wrath of her fast-food loving parents.

Fifteen-year-old aspiring writer Cammie Bliss of Lakewood, New York, tries to shed her reputation of being a stalker when a new boy, Toby, comes to town, but learning how to truly relate to others proves to be a challenge.

When eleven-year-old Ivy Blake leaves the nice farm family where she has been living in upstate New York and moves back in with her mother she is finally forced to face up to the fact that her alcoholic, dysfunctional parent will never be able to provide her with a stable home--and if she wants to achieve her dreams she is going to have to take charge of her own future.

Fourteen-year-old Zach learns he has the same special abilities as his father, who was the president's globe-trotting troubleshooter until "the Bads" killed him, and now Zach must decide whether to use his powers in the same way at the risk of his own life.

Prairie Evers is finding that socialization isn't all it's cracked up to be. She's been homeschooled by her granny and has learned the most from traipsing through nature. But now she has to attend public school, and feels just like her chickens--cooped up and subject to the pecking order. School is a jolt for Prairie until she meets Ivy, her first true friend. But while raising chickens and the great outdoors have given Prairie wisdom and perspective,...

Story of farm life before farms were mechanized and electrified. "This farmer boy lived in northern New York about 1868. School days, beginning when he was nine years old, work on the farm and some innocent pleasures rounded out his life." Wis. bul.