In 1849, twelve-year-old California Morning Whipple, who renames herself Lucy, is distraught when her mother moves the family from Massachusetts to a rough California mining town.

Danny Cheng, a Chinese-American teen, grapples with a dangerous revelation about his parents' past, his plans for the future, and his feelings for his best friend, Harry Wong.

An overprotective mother, an unfriendly older sister, and a friend-stealing school bully are some of the challenges faced by thoughtful ten-year-old Ben Hunter of Filmland, California.

Twelve-year-old David and his family search for their kidnapped mother in the many different time period portals of their home, but when a stranger appears and tries to force them to sell the house, their desperation reaches new heights.

"Devin's team thinks she is taking too much credit for their winning streak and she must keep the team together"--

After moving to California, seventh-grader Devin is afraid she will not make the soccer team but finds, instead, a team is so bad that she is compelled to take the lead and turn it into something the players and coach can all be proud of.

Seventh-grader Abby Lovitt grows up on her family's California horse ranch in the 1960s, learning to train the horses her father sells and trying to reconcile her strict religious upbringing with her own ideas about life.

Through a series of letters, Sophie Brown, age twelve, relates her adventures as two new unusual chickens come to the farm.

Ever since the mass shooting at her California high school, junior Morgan Grant has become increasingly agoraphobic until even the idea of stepping outside her door can bring on a panic attack, a situation not made any easier by the fact that her parents are divorced--but when Evan moves in next door she finds herself attracted to him and begins to find herself longing for the life she has been missing.

Juanito accompanies his grandmother to a flea market in southern California, where he helps her and the other vendors and where they enjoy seeing old friends from their Mexican-American community.