In the summer of 1987 in Venice, California, ten-year-old Bug and her new friend Frankie learn important lessons about life, family, being your true self, and how to navigate in a world that is not always just or fair.

Xochitl and her family, newly arrived in San Francisco from El Salvador, create a beautiful plant nursery in place of the garbage heap behind their apartment, and celebrate with their friends and neighbors.

An escape from reality is what Lizzie needs after her father abandoned her oftentimes irresponsible mother-- just before they found out her mom has cancer. Uncle Davy's renovated schoolhouse cabin, filled with antiques and on the edge of the Adirondacks, is disconnected from the rest of the world. And the main reason Lizzie loves her uncle's home is Matias, Uncle Davy's neighbor and Lizzie's best friend. Matias has proportionate dwarfism, but that...

The child of Salvadoran immigrants, Roberto Lovato grew up in 1970s and 80s San Francisco as Salvadoran gangs were forming in California. In his teens, he lost friends to the escalating violence, and survived acts of brutality himself. As a human rights advocate in wartime El Salvador, he joined the guerilla movement against the U.S.-backed, fascist military government. Lovato channeled his own pain into activism and journalism, focusing on how trauma...