The summer after his absentee father is killed in a random shooting, Paul volunteers at a Harlem soup kitchen where he listens to lessons about "the social contract" from an elderly African American man, and mentors a seventeen-year-old unwed mother who wants to make it to college on a basketball scholarship.

When cardboard creatures come magically to life, a boy must save his town from disaster.

Dak, Sera, and Riq race against time to save the world's greatest library in Baghdad during the Dark Ages.

Now that she's a cheerleader and adored by a legion of kids playing superhero, things seem to be going Amelia's way for once. Then her aunt Tanner disappears, humiliated by an ex-boyfriend's tell-all book. When Amelia boards a bus on an epic journey to find Tanner, it soon becomes clear that life is never through with surprises.

In 1945, thirteen-year-old Levi is sent to find the father he has not seen in three years, going from Chicago, to segregated North Carolina, and finally to Pendleton, Oregon,where he learns that his father's unit, the all-Black 555th paratrooper battalion, will never see combat but finally has a mission.

Thirteen-year-old Cody Parker moves to Baltimore, Maryland, where as a fat eighth-grader, he has to deal with brutal teasing from a baseball teammate, and his school is beset by a rash of mysterious thefts that threaten to sideline Cody and ruin a goldenseason for his team.

Upon going to the doctor for a routine knee injury, foster child and aspiring NFL athlete Harrison learns that he has bone cancer.

Traces the work of two wildlife veterinarians who protect and chart the lives of Assateague Island's wild horses, describing their shared efforts to balance the horses' ecosystem and raise awareness.