domestic fiction

The central figure of this novel is a young man whose parents were executed for conspiring to steal atomic secrets for Russia. His name is Daniel Isaacson, and as the story opens, his parents have been dead for many years. He has had a long time to adjust to their deaths. He has not adjusted.

Kate Morrison, orphaned at the age of seven, grows up seeing her brilliant older brother Matt's failure to further his education as a tragedy, and feeling somewhat guilty about her own accomplishments, and it is not until years later that she finally sees the damage her faulty thinking has caused.

Lou and Benzer prayed for their summer to be exciting, but not in the bad way that seems to be happening--the county wants to take Lou's house away from her family. To save it, Lou and Benzer try to solve a mystery about Lou's great-great-great-grandfather and the gold he stole during the Civil War. In the search she finds her great-great-great-grandmother's diary and learns a heap about her family's colorful past.

Ivy despairs when she has to leave her best friend Prairie's home, where she has been living, to move back in with her alcoholic mother. When Ivy's mother's behavior reaches a tipping point, Ivy must summon her strength and inner reserves to make the decision that is best for herself.

From her first bite, young Betty Bunny likes chocolate cake so much that she claims she will marry it one day, and she has trouble learning to wait patiently until she can have her next taste.

After eleven-year-old Liam moves to the home of his grandmother, who has dementia, with his sister and his alcoholic mother, he copes with his difficulties by befriending a stone gargoyle.

Mary O'Hara, a twelve-year-old Dublin schoolgirl, is bravely facing the fact that her beloved Gran is dying. But Gran can't let go of life, and when a mysterious young woman turns up in Mary's street with a message for her Gran, Mary gets pulled into an unlikely adventure.

Logan Pryce and his father spend a day in the big city of Sherman, but despite his eagerness to leave "boring" Maple Ridge, Logan is glad to return to quiet, familiar surroundings after the hustle and bustle of the city.

Sam is able to help his sister Anastasia with the poem she is writing for their mother's birthday, but his own efforts to create a special perfume are disastrous.