"When her adoptive mother dies, fifteen-year-old Mari and is desperate to avoid being caught up in the foster system. Again. And to complicate matters, she is now the only one who can take care of her super-smart and on-the-spectrum nine-year-old stepbrother, Conor. Is there anyone Mari can trust to help them? Certainly not her mother’s current boyfriend, Dennis. Not the doctors or her teachers, who would be obliged to call in social services. So...

Justin has lost the hat his grandmother made for him, and if he is to find it in time for her visit he will have to go talk to Mr. Rumkowsky, the gruff old school custodian in charge of the Lost and Found.

Charlie has looked forward to being in the fourth-grade play, but is not at all happy when Mrs. Burke assigns him the role of the Nice Gnome.

"Charlie, Tommy, and Hector have high hopes for their soccer team this season until they find out that their new coach isn't all that interested in the fantabulous plays the three friends have worked out together"--

James Dobbins writes letters to Santa Claus, detailing what he and some family members want for Christmas and explaining his behavior of the past year.