After the death of his best friend, Elam reluctantly moves with his family to the desert, where he wrestles with homesickness, loneliness, grief, and the search for new friendship.
Thirteen-year-old Juffa, a hunchback orphan living in Castle Marlby, dreams of serving a prince, and when his wish comes true he becomes embroiled in adventure and intrigue.
A rare silver coin and a mysterious red-haired boy seem entangled in eleven-year-old Jacob "Deb" Corey's fate when he is laid up with a badly broken leg on his family's farm in the mid-1800s, just after performing a hex to cure his wanderlust.
