In 1958 Little Rock, Arkansas, painfully shy twelve-year-old Marlee sees her city and family divided over school integration, but her friendship with Liz, a new student, helps her find her voice and fight against racism.

In Brooklyn in 1951, a die-hard Giants fan teaches nine-year-old Maggie, who is a "Bums" (Dodgers) fan, how to use a technique to keep score of a baseball game which creates a special friendship between them.

When a formerly segregated North Carolina town hires its first African-American teacher in 1969, two girls--one black, one white--confront the prejudice that challenges their friendship.

Aboard the battleship the USS Utah with their Navy pilot fathers during WWII when the ship is attacked by the Japanese, Frank and Stanley find their friendship--and dreams--in jeopardy when Stanley is seen as the "enemy" because his mother is Japanese American.

When Emily Bennett comes to stay with Molly's family to escape the bombings of London, she learns the true value of friendship and how brave she really is when she makes a big mistake and must rely on Molly for help.

In 1992 Boston, Dave, a white boy at a mostly black middle school, befriends Marlon, a youth who lives in public housing and who confounds Dave's assumptions about black culture before their bond is tested by girls, family secrets, and national violence.

Almost-eleven-year-old Josephine is NOT pleased to be moving into the Happy World trailer park over the summer of 1974. Happy World isn't happy. It's dingy and depressing! Nothing like the world that headstrong Josephine wants for herself. But when Josephine learns that her next door neighbor in Happy World was kidnapped months ago, she develops a begrudging interest in her new home. A kidnapping is exciting--and all signs point to Josephine being...