Disappointed when a gift he wished for all year seems quite puny on Christmas morning, young Roland wishes for bigger and bigger gifts before learning a valuable lesson about being careful what you wish for.

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.

Each of five children lucky enough to discover an entry ticket into Mr. Willy Wonka's mysterious chocolate factory takes advantage of the situation in his own way.

In a dystopian future seventeen-year-old Josephine Monarch has grown up in the Ashes, the poverty stricken borderlands of New Georgia, but today is the Lineup and if she is chosen she gets a chance to leave that behind--even though it will mean leaving all her loved ones behind, and embracing an uncertain future.