An eleven-year-old shoots a stray cat with his new air rifle, subsequently suffers from guilt, and eventually assumes responsibility for it.

Twelve-year-old Elizabeth resents being sent to stay on a small Maine island after the arrival of her new baby brother, but the time she spends with her artist grandmother and an unusual young neighbor help her to see things differently.

Eight-year-old Maurice's struggle to protect his bedroom full of treasured "junk" from unsympathetic parents undergoes a transformation when the family moves to the country.

When her father enters the hospital to have open-heart surgery, ten-year-old Emma is sent to Peconic Bay to live with her tormented aunt and finds the experience painful until she meets a friend who suggests making a miniature village in the sand.

Kidnapped by the crew of an Africa bound ship, a thirteen-year-old boy discovers to his horror that he is on a slaver and his job is to play music for the exercise periods of the human cargo.

Otto and Sophie Bentwood live in a changing neighborhood in Brooklyn. Their stainless steel sink is new, their Mercedes is parked at the curb. But when Sophie is bitten by a possibly rabies-infected stray cat, a series of disasters begin to plague the Brentwoods' lives, revealing the fault lines in a marriage--and a society--wrenching itself apart.--From publisher description.

An eleven-year-old shoots a stray cat with his new air rifle, subsequently suffers from guilt, and eventually assumes responsibility for it.