"Since her father's death, Cat has taken care of her brother, Chicken, for their hardworking mother but while spending time with grandparents they never knew, Cat has the chance to be a child again." --

When eighth-grader Cameron Boxer creates the Positive Action Group at school he intends it as a diversion to fool his parents, teachers, and sister into letting him continue to concentrate on his video-gaming--but before he knows it other kids are taking it seriously, and soon he finds himself president of the P.A.G., and involved in community service, so the boy who never cared about anything is now the center of everything, whether he likes it or...

"Twelve-year-old Trevor has an adult problem to deal with: how to protect himself, his sisters, and his mother from his abusive stepfather (currently in prison) and he thinks the way to do that is to take up boxing--although he would really rather draw."--

"Seventeen-year-old Lucille is struggling to get through each day, paying bills and looking after her little sister, Wren, while her father is institutionalized after a breakdown and her mother is "on vacation," but nothing else seems to matter when she is with Digby Jones, her best friend's twin brother." --

A friend and some very real fairy magic help twelve-year-old Minnie who is caring for her younger sisters, hiding that their mother is missing, and preparing for her school's production of Peter Pan.

"In the aftermath of a prank gone horribly wrong, a court order sends Moses Hill to become a camp Buddy, and he has a week to demonstrate his responsibility and worth to the authorities and himself." --

When Billy Broccoli finds out that his ghostly best friend, Hoover Porterhouse, is failing Responsibility, he decides to give him a pet. The problem is that pets are scared of Hoover.

Thirteen-year-old Dan blames himself when his best friend Nate is hit in the head by a baseball during practice--desperate to help, Dan seizes on the suggestion that even in a coma Nate may be able to hear him, and sets out to read to Nate from the superhero comic books that both boys love.

"Star has moved his herd of refugee pegasi to the coast to escape the Mountain Herd and the bitter memories of the past, and as head stallion it is up to him to protect and lead them--but the freezing storms of winter are coming, old enemies are seeking revenge, and an ancient adversary has awoken from sleep." --

Ignatius "Brother" Alderman, nearly twelve, promises to help his grandparents keep the family's Oregon ranch the same while his brothers are away and his father is deployed to Iraq, but as he comes to accept the inevitability of change, he also sees the man he is meant to be.