Twelve-year-old Lily Pruitt loves her grandparents, but she doesn't love the circus -- and the circus is their life. She's perfectly happy to stay with her father, away from her neglectful mother and her grandfather's elephant, Queenie Grace. Queenie Grace, a circus elephant, is happy to have Grandpa Bill as her keeper. She has had cruel keepers in the past, but Bill is her friend and treats her with love and respect. She doesn't quite understand...

Feeling most alive when he's playing the blues with his grandfather, Clayton is devastated when his grandfather dies and his mother forbids him from playing music, losses that compel him to run away and join bluesmen on the road.

"When a young boy's grandfather dies suddenly, he feels overwhelmed and confused. They will never see each other again. To his delight, they meet again in a dream, where his grandfather takes him to Transfer City, where our departed loved ones live on through our memories. In this modern, Eastern telling of the afterlife, death is not an ending, but a new start to life, just like the Immortal Jellyfish which is constantly maturing and then regressing,...

When her quirky grandmother goes to Hawaii for the summer, nine-year-old Ruby learns to survive on her own in Mississippi by writing letters, befriending chickens as well as the new girl in town, and finally coping with her grandfather's death.

After the sudden death of her parents, Stevie, thirteen, is sent to live at a rundown motel, where she charms everyone except her estranged grandfather.

Fourteen-year-old Josiah dreams of joining the crew of whaling ship, like his father and grandfather. A sailor brings news that his father has died, and that his crew was doomed by the mad Captain Ahab and the white whale, Moby Dick. Josiah and his loyal dog, Zeke, set sail to find out the truth of his father's death.

Goob's friends help him after his grandpa passes away.