Thirteen-year-old Earl Pryor is much too big for his age, and much too powerful for the anger that rages within him when classmates tease him, the girl he likes disappoints him, or his parents' problems get too real.
Rudi, a Marine, is one of four friends in four branches of the Armed Services who have sworn to do what they have to in order to survive the Vietnam War.
When fourteen-year-old Sylvia McLuckie, her ten-year-old brother Walter, and their quirky father move to a cottage by the sea, their new home's eerie reputation forces them to confront some surprising ghosts from their past.
Uneasy with the drunken violence and prejudice of his brother and others in his Irish neighborhood in Boston, Mick makes friends with a somewhat enigmatic Spanish-speaking loner at school.
Rudi is a newly drafted United States Marine in Vietnam, and he likes being part of a squad--but the way some of his fellow soldiers behave toward their officers, the Vietnamese, and the war itself, is starting to trouble him.
In 1975, twelve-year-old Richard befriends Napolean, a Caribbean newcomer to his Catholic school, hoping that Napolean will learn to love baseball and the Red Sox, and will win acceptance in the racially polarized Boston school.
