Almost twelve-year-old Siria, who chases firetrucks in the middle of the night to ensure her fire fighter dad's safety, learns about bravery one winter as she tries to mend a broken friendship.

Luke is unhappy about leaving his home and abuelo when his father takes a job at a New York zoo, but soon he has new friends and a mystery to solve. Includes facts about zoo animals and wildlife.

Making friends with Dawn, the new girl in the class, is hard for Emily especially after she becomes the fastest runner in the class and steals Emily's lucky unicorn.

Casey enjoyed Tracy's company during summer vacation but becomes increasingly jealous of her irrepressible new friend when she joins Casey's fifth-grade class.

"Judith stopped talking long ago when Mom left her in the care of beloved Aunt Cora. Going back into a regular fifth-grade classroom won't be easy, but she has her Dog and a new friend who will help her through"--

In 1941, circumstances bring together Brick, a boy from New York's apple country, and Mariel, a young girl made shy by her bout with polio, and the two make a journey from Brooklyn back to help Brick's elderly neighbors save their apple crop and to help Mariel learn about her past.

At the close of the school year, Emily thinks about the fun she has had with her classmates.