In 1970s Ohio, Lenny and her younger brother, Davey, who suffers from a rare form of gigantism, cope with his declining health by poring over each installment of Burrell's Build-It-at-Home Encyclopedia Set.

Middle schooler Liberty likes to make her own maps of the stars, in fact she is obsessed with them, especially since her family is falling apart; her parents are getting divorced, her nine-year-old sister will barely leave the house and carries a stuffed tiger at all times, her father is suffering from depression, but will not talk about it, and the brothers down the street, once friends, have turned into bullies--so when a tiny meteorite literally...

Marty Frye, a seven-year-old who likes to read poetry and talk in rhymes, solves three separate mysteries for a classmate, a toy store owner, and his younger sister.

A strange telegram lures fourteen-year-old Amy Cahill and her younger brother, Dan, deep into Russia and away from the only trustworthy adult they know. Signed with the initials NRR, the telegram launches a race to uncover a treasure stolen by the Nazis and the truth behind the murder of the last Russian royal family. All too soon, the treasure hunt starts to smell like a Lucian trap. But the bait might just be irresistible--what will Amy and Dan...

It is the late 1960s and there is no peace in the village of Yellow Stone for little Da and his family, who were former landowners; they are all persecuted by the Red Guard, particularly Da's oldest sister, Sisi, who tries hard to conform to the new political realities, but who cannot overcome the frightened hostility of the other villagers--so Sisi escapes to find work in a school in another town, taking Da with her, and trying to find a compromise...

The four Alden children, aged six to fourteen, volunteer at the new recycling center in town, and help uncover who is breaking in and making a mess each night.

Magically transported to southwest China to find the final object needed to break the spell on the wizard Merlin's beloved penguin, Jack and Annie take a side trip to the world's largest giant panda reserve.

Jack and Annie travel 500 years back in time to Florence, Italy, and spend a day helping Leonardo da Vinci in the hope of learning another secret of happiness.

"Twelve-year-old Fella is swept away on a wild road trip by her older sister Zany to fulfill their late mother's dying wish"--

Jack and Annie travel in their magic tree house to the land of the mystical selkies to seek a magical sword for Merlin.