Anne leaves home to go to college in Kingsport, Nova Scotia, and finds her life expanding in many different ways, including a marriage proposal, the sale of her very first story, and a tragedy that teaches her a painful lesson.

On April 1, 1945 with the battle of Okinawa beginning, fourteen-year-old native Okinawan Hideki, drafted into the Blood and Iron Student Corps, is handed two grenades and told to go kill American soldiers; small for his age Hideki does not really want to kill anyone, he just wants to find his family, and his struggle across the island will finally bring him face-to-face with Ray, a marine in his very first battle--and the choice he makes then will...

In 1946, as London emerges from the shadow of World War II, author Juliet Ashton is having a terrible time finding inspiration for her next book. Then she receives a letter from Guernsey Island, and learns of a unique book club formed on the spur of the moment as an alibi to protect its members from arrest by the occupying Germans during the war. Captivated, she sets sail for Guernsey, and what she finds there will change her life forever.

A young Indian girl, Zia, caught between the traditional world of her mother and the present world of the Mission, is helped by her aunt Karana whose story was told in the Island of the Blue Dolphins.

It was Christmastime on Mouse Island, and I couldn't wait to celebrate with my friends and family. Until I learned that they were all traveling out of town for the holidays, and I'd be spending Christmas alone! I was depressed, down, despondent, and starting to feel like a real grinch! I wandered the streets of New Mouse City, feeling sorry for myself. But then I discovered an amazing surprised that taught me the true meaning of Christmas.

In 1966, with her middle school life and the world itself in turmoil, twelve-year-old Trudy and the other three remaining fan club members leave Rhode Island for Boston to see a Beatles concert.

Moose Flanagan, who lives on Alcatraz along with his family and the families of the other prison guards, is frightened when he discovers that noted gangster Al Capone, a prisoner there, wants a favor in return for the help that he secretly gave Moose.

Carrie Sinclair tells the ghost of her son Johnny about the summer of 1987, when "the boys" arrive on Beechwood Island, setting off events that will haunt her for years to come.

"It's 1932, and the Great Venus Island Fetish, a ceremonial mask surrounded by thirty-two human skulls, now resides in a museum in Sydney, Australia. But young anthropologist Archie Meek, recently returned from an extended field trip to Venus Island, hasnoticed something amiss: a strange discoloration on some of the skulls. Has someone tampered with the fetish? Is there a link between it and the mysterious disappearance of Cecil Polkinghorne, curator...

In 1960s New York, fifth-grader Ruthie, a Cuban-Jewish immigrant, must rely on books, art, her family, and friends in her multicultural neighborhood when an accident puts her in a body cast.