Jessie lives with her family in the frontier village of Clifton, Indiana. When diphtheria strikes the village and the children of Clifton start dying, Jessie's mother sends her on a dangerous mission to bring back help. But beyond the walls of Clifton, Jessie discovers a world even more alien and threatening than she could have imagined, and soon she finds her own life in jeopardy.
Tess McAlister truly believes in magic and is convinced that this is the year she will finally meet Santa Claus. Tess has many Christmas wishes, but her most fervent is not for herself, but for a friend. Her faith in the season results in a Christmas Eve so wondrous, so sparkling, that listeners won't be able to help but feel transformed.
Nyle's life with her grandmother on their Vermont sheep farm advances rhythmically through the seasons until the night of the accident at the Cookshire nuclear power plant. Without warning, Nyle's modest world fills with protective masks, evacuations, contaminated food, disruptions, and mistrust.
Belle Lawe makes the long journey to England in 1912. She is escaping from what she imagines to be a shameful secret, and by the time she has left school, and the Great War is raging in France, she attempts to immerse herself in a life of gaiety and fun.
Thirteen-year-old Anna was born after an embryonic selection process that ensured she would be an ideal matching donor for her sister Kate, who suffers from leukemia. After many years of bone marrow transplants and the like, Anna decides to sue her parents to prevent a kidney donation that could save Kate's life.
In the town of Waterby on Fire Island, the rhythms and rituals of summer are sacrosanct: the ceremonial arrivals and departures by ferry; yacht-club dinners with terrible food and breathtaking views; the virtual decree against shoes; and the generational parade of sandy, sun-bleached kids, running, swimming, squealing, and coming of age on the beach.
