In 1937, during the Depression, fifteen-year-old Mary Alice, initially apprehensive about leaving Chicago to spend a year with her fearsome, larger-than-life grandmother in rural Illinois, gradually begins to better understand and admire her grandmother's unusual qualities.

Twelve-year-old Frankie Joe Huckaby, forced to live with the father he never knew, a stepmother, and four half-brothers in Illinois, starts a delivery service to finance his escape back to his mother in Texas, not realizing he is making a better life for himself than he ever had with her.

Inspired by her late grandmother, 13-year-old Nina spends a summer secretly doing good deeds for her neighbors and enjoying the changes she brings about, even as she's dealing with changing friendships and family issues.

When seemingly unrelated and strange events start to happen and a precious Vermeer painting disappears, eleven-year-olds Petra and Calder combine their talents to solve an international art scandal.

The unforgettable tale of a girl, her maybe-criminal mom, her babysitting business, and her pet pineapple.

Meet Molly McIntire, a lively nine-year old growing up during World War II. Although the fighting is happening far away, the war changes Molly's life on the home front too. Every morning Mom goes off to work at the Red Cross headquarters, and she doesn't get home until late. Molly's older brother Ricky is even more of a pest than usual. Wors of all, Molly misses her dad, an Army doctor who's thousands of miles away helping wounded soldiers. With the...

"A Chinese American girl's Auntie Yang discovers soybeans--a favorite Chinese food--growing in Illinois, leading her family to a soybean picnic tradition that grows into an annual community event. Includes author's note and glossary" --Provided by publisher.

During the Great Depression, Davey learns that a neighbor's property is about to be auctioned, and he rallies his friends, neighbors, and family to help save Strawberry Farm.

Emily moves with her family from Chicago to the country where she is drawn to a mysterious playhouse she finds in the woods, and it is not long before she meets the painted house's sad, lonely inhabitant.

What starts out as a perfectly ordinary day in the Small house turns into Stiches Saturday when Cleo gets a cut on the head after her twin brother, Jack, accidentally pulls down their "Toy House."