Morris, Rudi, Ivan, and Beck were best friends at home and in Vietnam, but now Rudi has been killed in action, and the remaining three are the only ones who know the truth about their friend's death--and the knowledge threatens to tear them apart.

Tom, a fourteen-year-old genius at virtual reality games, is recruited by the United States Military to begin training at the Pentagon Spire as a Combatant in World War III, controlling the mechanized drones that do the actual fighting off-planet.

"It's 1918, and war is raging across Europe. When Lady Mina Tretheway receives a telegram at boarding school, she doesn't want to read it--telegrams never bring good news. The message is written in a cryptic code, and Mina is soon pulled out of school and into a secret wartime mission with a dashing American spy" --

"Some things are worth fighting for. Of all his friends, Ivan is the only one looking forward to war. That's because Ivan has never backed down from a fight--especially when it comes to fighting for what's right. He has protected his friends from bullies for years. And now, as war erupts in Vietnam, Ivan wants nothing more than to fight for his country, just as his father did in World War II. Enlisting in the United States Army, Ivan is trained...

"While serving as a superhuman government weapon during World War III, teenager Tom Raine's loyalties are tested by corruption and nefarious enemies"--

When the Sudanese civil war reaches his village in 1985, eleven-year-old Salva becomes separated from his family and must walk with other Dinka tribe members through southern Sudan, Ethiopia, and Kenya in search of safe haven. Based on the life of Salva Dut, who, after emigrating to America in 1996, began a project to dig water wells in Sudan.