Seventeen-year-old Greg has managed to become part of every social group at his Pittsburgh high school without having any friends, but his life changes when his mother forces him to befriend Rachel, a girl he once knew in Hebrew school who has leukemia.

Senior Ariel Stone is the perfect college applicant: first chair violin, dedicated community volunteer, and expected valedictorian. A failed Calculus quiz is not part of his plan. As his grade slips further, he enlists a classmate, Amir, as a tutor. Amir and Ariel have never gotten along, but spending time with Amir makes the world seem fuller and brighter. Except adding a new relationship to his long list of commitments may just push Ariel past his...

When sixteen-year-old Mateo and Chela discover each other and their powers during a political battle between neighborhood factions, they set aside their differences to unravel the mystery behind their sunken homeland and to stop a dangerous political operative who is trying to harness their gifts to unleash terror on the world.

Zelly Fried wants a dog more than anything, so at the urging of her grandfather, during the summer before sixth grade she takes care of a "practice dog" made out of an orange juice jug to show her parents that she is ready for the responsibility, even though she is sometimes not entirely sure about the idea.

Rebecca Rubin worries that her tenth birthday will be ruined because it falls during Passover, but her mother's cousin Max, an actor, takes her with him to a movie studio, where she makes friends with an actress and a set carpenter.

"This middle-grade novel takes place in Pittsburgh in 1952-53. The protagonist is Franny, a young girl of imagination, curiosity, and stubbornness. While recovering from polio, she begins a correspondence with a flea named Fleabrain"--

Told to make a doll like a Pilgrim for the Thanksgiving display at school, Molly's Jewish mother dresses the doll as she herself dressed before leaving Russia to seek religious freedom--much to Molly's embarrassment.

To be more like her best friend, eleven-year-old Justine decides to give up Judaism to become Catholic, but after her beloved, religious grandmother dies, she realizes that she needs to seek her own way of being Jewish.

Ten-year-old Rebecca Rubin is injured during a strike at the sweatshop where her uncle and cousin work when she tries to give a speech, while keeping a big secret from her family.

In 1970 Queens, New York, Julian Twerski, now in seventh grade, struggles to write an essay as punishment for an act he did not commit, worries about Beverly, the girl he likes, prepares for his bar mitzvah, and tries to cope with the serious illness of one of his closest friends, Quentin.