A novel in verse inspired by the author's experience follows H�a and her family, refugees from the Vietnam War, as they move to Texas for a new job, and despite not wanting to start over again, H�a discovers unwanted change can bring a good opportunity.

James Henry hasn’t been the same since that fateful night at the lighthouse when his momma went into the sea. Now months later, he is barely able to leave the house without having a panic attack, and talking to people, well, that’s just too hard. His feisty twin sister Hattie intervenes on his behalf again and again—protecting him from neighborhood bullies and an uncle who just wants him to snap out of it. But it's 1939, and without a local...

This is a truth about growing up. Once in your life, sometime after your first memory but before you can drive a car, something is going to happen to you that doesn't happen to anyone else you know. It might be something good. It might be something bad, or special, or funny, or shocking. For Millie, it's something really sad. Lolo, her neighbors' infant daughter, dies--unexpectedly, suddenly, inexplicably--on the night Millie babysits. There's...

Raymond is used to being alone. Twelve-year-old Raymond Hurley has never had a place to call home. His freewheeling parents move their family from town to town, and they're living in a trailer in a brand-new state when one day they just up and abandon him. All alone with nothing but a duffel bag full of clothes and Rosie, his reliable pup, Raymond is forced to live in the woods behind his middle school. With a fishing pole in hand and a survival...

What if you switched places with your cat? After falling prey to her friends' bullying one too many times, Poppy makes a wish for an easier life--and it comes true in a very unexpected way: she swaps bodies with her cat, Mitten Man. Mayhem ensures as Poppy attempts to navigate the wilds of the wilderness as a cat. Now not only can she understand all animals--grasshoppers speak in rhyming couplets that only foretell doom--but she has to rescue a turtle...

Any Zhou is used to being what people need him to be: the good kid for his parents, and now grandparents visiting from Shanghai, or the helpful sidekick for his best friend Cindy's rebellious plans and schemes. So when Cindy decides they should try out for Movement after school on the first day of sixth grade, how can Andy say no? But between feeling out of place with the dancers, being hassled by his new science partner Jameel, and sensing tension...

If Austin picked a color to describe his life, it would be tumbleweed brown. Austin doesn't like standing out. He moves a lot, so he's always the new kid, and there's no hiding his size. Plus, Austin has a secret... one he's become an expert at hiding. Then Austin meets Bertie, who is razzmatazz. Everything about Bertie is bursting! But the best part of Austin's newest school is the Safety Squad, with their laser lemon vests. Their cool confidence...

Ten year old Amelia has always had Calvin, her chinchilla friend, to talk about her problems. But Calvin is no longer in his cage, and her parents just say he's in a "better place." When Amelia and her best friend, Camila, disagree, and Amelia later misses the school talent show, she doesn't know what to do. Without Calvin, who does she talk to about her disappointments at school? And who does she talk to about missing Calvin? Just when Amelia thinks...

Vivan Lantz is cursed. Every year, terrible things happen on her first day of school--and her first day of eighth grade makes the rest of them look like child's play. Her family's house floods in a rainstorm. She ruins her perfect outfit before she even walks through the school doors. She almost kills her teacher's fish. And if all of that weren't upsetting enough, she gets her first period in the middle of the school cafeteria. Vivian can't wait...

Alvin, an Asian American second grader, is afraid of everything—elevators, tunnels, girls, and, most of all, school. He’s so afraid of school that, while he’ s there, he never, ever, says a word. But at home, Alvin is a very loud superhero named Firecracker Man, a brother to Calvin and Anibelly, and a gentleman-in-training, just like his dad. With the help of his family, can Alvin take on the outside world without letting his fears get the best...