An-ying, teenage daughter of Chinese immigrants, is having a difficult time breaking away from her parents' Chinese traditions in order to choose her own friends and accept a scholarship at an American college.
With his mother expecting a baby and a bully living next door, fifth-grader Hoby Hobson has enough to worry about even before Zirc, a time-traveling boy who can sometimes be invisible, shows up in his backyard.
Gretta, who is making strides in her fairy godmother training, tries to help Morgan fit in at her new school as research for a book about her interactions with humans, but her own boyfriend problems get in the way.
Set in 1885 on Maryland's eastern shore of the Chesapeake Bay, a fourteen-year-old girl rescues her twin brother from the clutches of the cruel captain of an oyster dredge during the height of the Oyster Wars.
