iowa

In Iowa farm country, sixteen-year-old Aspen and her friend Laurel plan to get noticed the summer before their senior year and are unwittingly aided by pig triplets, a skunk, a chicken, bullies, a rookie policeman, and potential boyfriends.

Glory, the youngest of the eight Boughton children, returns to Gilead, Iowa, in 1957 to care for her dying father, Robert, a former Presbyterian pastor, and the two are soon joined by Jack, the prodigal son of the family who left town twenty years earlier in the midst of scandal, and together they edge toward understanding, forgiveness, and healing.

Marie-Ange Hawkins lives an idyllic life in her family's French chateau until a tragic accident leaves her orphaned. Sent to America to work on her great-aunt's farm, she longs for a way home. When a young French widower offers her love and a tremendous gift--her old chateau--her life seems charmed again. But eventually a mysterious woman shows her that her life is not all it seems.

When seventeen-year-old Kyra of Macon, Iowa, becomes overwhelmed by the stress of senior year in high school, the school play, and early admission to drama school she begins taking prescription drugs, unaware that her twin brother will suffer the consequences.

Jealous of a pretty and popular new student, thirteen-year-old Dagmar decides to get even with humorous results.

Chinese American Elaine Chow feels like an outcast after moving to a small town in Iowa, until she shares a new friendship and a science project with a girl strongly interested in frogs.

Chinese American Elaine Chow feels like an outcast after moving to a small town in Iowa, until she shares a new friendship and a science project with a girl strongly interested in frogs.

Sixteen-year-old Joey's life takes a very strange turn when his mother's tragic death forces him to move from Chicago to rural Iowa with the father he has never known, and who is the town pariah.

Covers the history, geography, government, politics, economy, social life and customs, events, attractions, and key individuals.