A young, mute boy who is apprenticed to a dragon-slayer suspects that the winged beasts do not exist, until he--and his master--learn the truth.

Using a deck of Lotería cards as her muse, eleven-year-old Luz Castillo, a ward of the state who has retreated into silence, finds each shuffle sparking a random memory that, pieced together, brings into focus the events that led to her present situation.

Taking an impulse job as a dancing bear mascot, Danny is not recognized while wearing the costume by his young son, who begins opening up about his mother's death a year earlier.

"Judith stopped talking long ago when Mom left her in the care of beloved Aunt Cora. Going back into a regular fifth-grade classroom won't be easy, but she has her Dog and new friend who will help her through"--

For most of her eleven years, Delly has been in trouble without knowing why, until her little brother, RB, and a strange, silent new friend, Ferris, help her find a way to be good--and happy--again.

In 1939, after cruel treatment at her orphanage renders her mute, Lucy runs away and joins the circus, working with the elephants and unaware that the orphanage matrons are hunting for her.

"Parker hasn't spoken since he watched his father die five years ago. He communicates through writing on slips of paper and keeps track of his thoughts by journaling. A loner, Parker has little interest in school, his classmates, or his future. But everything changes when he meets Zelda, a mysterious young woman with an unusual request: 'treat me like a teenager'"--

"On the sharp crags of tiny Tillings Island lies the secret of Izabella Rae Haywood's sixth birthday. That night, her father vanished, taking her voice, and the truth of what really happened along with him"-- Tillings Island, Rhode Island, witnessed the biggest event of Izabella Rae Haywood's life. On her sixth birthday her father left... and took her voice with him. Eight years later in the summer of 1974, Iz and her mother board the ferry to Tillings...