In 1938, eleven-year-old Esther joins her father in tropical, multicultural Cuba, where they toil together to rescue the rest of their Jewish family from persecution in Poland. Includes notes about the author's grandmother, on whom the story is based.

Twelve-year-old Tom learns first-hand about honor, first when he is wrongly accused of lying at school, then when he faces the risk of losing a puppy he has come to love while helping his grandfather train hunting dogs, but writing to a new friend helps him sort his feelings and do the right thing.

Through letters to his little sister, who is living in a different foster home, sixth-grader Lonnie, also known as "Locomotion," keeps a record of their lives while they are apart, describing his own foster family, including his foster brother who returns home after losing a leg in the Iraq War.

"Mary Anne should never have thrown away that chain letter she got in the mail. Ever since she did, bad things have been happening to everyone in the Baby-sitters Club. With Halloween coming up, Mary Anne's even more worried -- what kind of spooky thing will happen next? Then Mary Anne finds a new note in her mailbox: Wear this bad-luck charm, it says. OR ELSE. Mary Anne has to follow the note's instructions. But who sent the charm? And why did they...