Deeply involved in his cold and manipulative mother's shady business dealings in Flint, Michigan, fourteen-year-old Luther keeps a sense of humor while running the Happy Neighbor Group Home For Men, all the while dreaming of going to college and becoming a philosopher.
Growing up in Saitter, Louisiana, in the 1950s, twelve-year-old Tiger Ann struggles with her feelings about her stern, but loving grandmother, her mentally slow parents, and her good friend and neighbor, Jesse.
In rural Pennsylvania in 1958, when thirteen-year-old Luna's best friend Mason dies, she decides to move in with his mentally disabled mother and care for her as Mason did.
Thirteen-year-old Vicky, her brain-damaged twin sister, and her delinquent little brother run away together to keep from being split up by the foster care system.
Text and photographs show Misty, a little girl with Down syndrome, and her father reviewing her day's activities in their search for her stuffed monkey.
Although Christy considered him a pest, when Eddie Lee, a boy with Down Syndrome, follows her into the woods, he shares several special discoveries with her.
Allie helps Jesse, her older, mentally disabled brother on his way to school and endures the taunts of other children, but she does not understand why God made Jesse the way he is until she takes the time to "walk in his shoes" for a while.
