Fifteen-year-old Peak Marcello is invited to participate in an "International Peace Ascent" in the Hindu Kush, with a team made up of under-eighteen-year-old climbers from around the world--but from the first something seems wrong, so when the group is attacked, and most of the climbers are either killed or kidnapped, Peak finds himself caught up in a struggle to survive, shadowed by the Shen, a mysterious snow leopard.

Twelve-year-old Maggie's stutter causes her much heartache and only her menagerie of pets, whom she can speak with fluidly, provide her comfort - but when she finds Rumpus, an abandoned snow leopard, in a forest in Cornwall, their chance encounter will change their lives forever.

"Fourteen-year-old Sam is at a youth conference in Africa when the bus takes off without him, leaving him stranded. Within minutes he's attacked by an angry elephant and half-blinded by a spitting cobra. A young Masai tells Sam he needs medical attention--fast. But the only way to the hospital is through the Chui Hills. The same hills being terrorized by a ferocious, man-eating leopard"--