When her best friend's cancer returns in the summer of 1987, none of her usual pursuits--surfing, singing, or reading poetry--can keep thirteen-year-old Ava afloat.

Earl Grubb's Pool Supplies plays Northeast Gas & Electric in the Little League championship game, while Sam, who has cancer and is in a wheelchair, has to call the play-by-play instead of participating in the game.

Seventh-grader Ben, always an outsider, is led into a deep friendship with Halley, who is being treated for cancer, by the special dog he and his adoptive mother take in.

When twelve-year-old Ruby's mother goes to jail, Ruby finds her Aunt Eleanor, an ornery nun with some dark secrets, who Ruby hopes will help free her mother.

Eight-year-old Tess is convinced that if she believes and stays aware of the magic around her, she will meet Santa Claus on Christmas Eve of 1958, when she will thank him for his gifts and ask him to use his magic to cure her best friend's father of cancer.

Twelve-year-old El has planned on making her first week at a new school fantastic. She won't go by her given name, Laughter. She'll sit in the back of the classroom where she can make new friends. She won't even have time to think about all the fun her old friends are having without her. Everything will be great. But when her dad picks her up after school and tells her that her younger sister, Echo, has a life-threatening illness, her world is suddenly...

After more moves than they can count, Isa's family finally puts down roots. People in town whisper strange stories about the abandoned orchard behind their new home, but Isa and her sister Junie are happy to have acres of land to explore and trees to swing beneath. For the first time in a while, life feels 'perfecterrific'. But then Junie gets sick and everything changes: Isa's mom falls into a depression, and medical bills force Isa's dad to work...