Runaways Axi, sixteen, and Robinson, seventeen, who met on a cancer ward, leave small-town Oregon on a cross-country trip to experience the best of life before it is too late.

After a sharp-tongued fifth-grader undergoes surgery for a brain tumor she is uncomfortable because suddenly everyone is unnaturally nice to her.

Although Jeff and Tad, encouraged by a new friend, Lindsey, make a deal to help one another overcome aftereffects of their cancer treatments in preparation for eighth-grade graduation, Jeff still craves advice from his older brother Stephen, who is studying drums in Africa.

About the time that her father was diagnosed with cancer, Jade invented Zoe, an imaginary friend in the pages of her notebook that she could depend on; then one of her classmates, Gresham Gorham (called Clue), somehow brings Zoe to life, and Jade suddenly has a best friend, one she can still control by what she writes in her notebook--but soon Jade begins to wonder how much a friendship is worth if you are calling all of the shots, and whether she...

Sixteen-year-old Claire is unable to face her fears about a recurrence of her leukemia, her eating disorder, her need to fit in with the popular crowd on Hackett Island, and her mother's alcoholism until the enigmatic Lani Garver helps her get control of her life at the risk of his own. The close-knit residents of Hackett Island have never seen anyone quite like Lani Garver. Everything about this new kid is a mystery: Where does Lani come from? How...

Seventeen-year-old best friends Samantha and Juliana tell their stories in alternating chapters after Juliana is diagnosed with cancer.