Fourteen-year-old Joan Skraggs, just like the heroines in her beloved novels, yearns for real life and true love. But what hope is there for adventure, beauty, or art on a hardscrabble farm in Pennsylvania where the work never ends? Over the summer of 1911, Joan pours her heart out into her diary as she seeks a new, better life for herself--because maybe, just maybe, a hired girl cleaning and cooking for six dollars a week can become what a farm girl...

After spending her summer running the family farm and training the quarterback for her school's rival football team, sixteen-year-old D.J. decides to go out for the sport herself, not anticipating the reactions of those around her.

While grieving following an unexpected family tragedy, Rose Darrow finds her quiet world turned upside down when Bodhi Lowell is hired to spend the summer working on her family's farm.

Fourteen-year-old Prissie Pomeroy's faith is tested when she learns that some of her friends, old and new, are angels, that they are engaged in battle with demons, and that God has some special purpose for her.

Because living with "modern-hippy" parents on a goat farm means fourteen-year-old Janie Gorman cannot have a normal high school life, she tries joining Jam Band, making friends with Monster, and spending time with elderly former civil rights workers.

When thirteen-year-old Melita, the sophisticated daughter of a New York actress, comes to visit Phoebe, who has been raised by her father on a farm in Maine, Phoebe discovers she has confusing feelings about their developing friendship.