Ben's troubles at school get progressively worse when he starts hanging around Trout, a new boy in his fifth grade class, who is also labeled as learning disabled.
When their father is jailed for embezzlement and their mother suffers a nervous breakdown, four young people try to cope with the many changes in their lives and the new responsibilities thrust upon them.
During the summer before her senior year, a Catholic girl runs away from her well-meaning but narrow-minded mother and finds a job as a mother's helper.
Julie MacNeil feels threatened both in the family and on the soccer field when her widower father begins to date the mother of her arch-rival Benji True.
On the eve of their ninth birthdays and living in a new town, Zoe and Columbo find themselves drifting apart when Columbo decides he wants to keep secret the fact that he is adopted.
Thirteen-year-old Amanda Bates goes from goody-two-shoes to goth troublemaker to fit into the most exclusive clique at school, and attract the attention of Slade, a ninth-grader with a bad reputation.
Eleven-year-old Joshua, worried about fitting in at school, feels awkward when the new student he is supposed to be helping becomes the target of the fifth grade's biggest bully.
Eleven-year-old Joshua, worried about fitting in at school, feels awkward when the new student he is supposed to be helping becomes the target of the fifth grade's biggest bully.
