Nim loves her island home and the animals she shares it with, even while her scientist father is away doing research, but trouble is on the way and a new e-mail friend could be the only one who can help.

Life has been hard for fourteen-year-old Mehrigul, a member of the Uyghur tribal group scorned by the Chinese communist regime, so when an American offers to buy all the baskets she can make in three weeks, Mehrigul strives for a better future for herself and her family despite her father's opposition.

Accompanying her father to an Arctic outpost on Bear Island, where she is informed no polar bears remain, April spots a hungry and lonely polar bear that she resolves to help return home.

When her wheelchair motocross dreams get shattered, 12-year-old Emmie finds the community rallying around her, but cannot shake the feeling that her goals are no longer her own and must take a stand for what she wants.

Middle schooler Liberty likes to make her own maps of the stars, in fact she is obsessed with them, especially since her family is falling apart; her parents are getting divorced, her nine-year-old sister will barely leave the house and carries a stuffed tiger at all times, her father is suffering from depression, but will not talk about it, and the brothers down the street, once friends, have turned into bullies--so when a tiny meteorite literally...

Twelve-year-old Boomi accidentally travels back in time to 1986 England, where she meets her late father as a child, changing her life forever.