Jeff's mother, who deserted the family years before, reenters his life and widens the gap between Jeff and his father, a gap that only truth, love, and friendship can heal.

The family routine is upset during Ramona's year in second grade when her father unexpectedly loses his job.

"From the living legend and award-winning author of Hatchet comes a laugh-out-loud middle-grade romp about a boy, his free-thinking dad, and the puppy-training pamphlet that turns their summer upside down"--

Eleven-year-old Walter Tell awaits the skillful demonstration of his father William, a Swiss freedom fighter, who will shoot an apple from his head.

Twelve-year-old Abilene Tucker is the daughter of a drifter who, in the summer of 1936, sends her to stay with an old friend in Manifest, Kansas, where he grew up, and where she hopes to find out some things about his past.

Blair Thomas lives in the friendly, lakeside town of Lainey, Michigan, on the beautiful shores of the Lake Huron. Lainey boasts superb hunting opportunities and offers visitors miles of sandy shoreline and weekend tours of the historic Tesla Lighthouse. It is the beginning of the fall, duck hunting season, and Blair and her dad are busy preparing for her very first duck hunt. The forecast is calling for extremely high winds and rain, absolutely perfect...

Snow and Rose search the forest for their missing father and discover there is a sinister magic at work in the woods.

When she suspects that her father has a girlfriend, Melody and her best friend are determined to figure out who it is and why it is a secret.

Fifth grader Jack finds himself the target of ridicule at school when it becomes known that his father is one of the janitors, and he turns his anger onto his father.

Tate Marshall is delighted when a stray dog turns up in the yard one day, but Sable, named for her dark, silky fur, causes trouble with the neighbors and has to go.