Twelve-year-old Quijana is a biracial girl, desperately trying to understand the changes that are going on in her life; her mother rarely gets home before bedtime, her father suddenly seems to be trying to get in touch with his Guatemalan roots (even though he never bothered to teach Quijana Spanish), she is about to start seventh grade in the Texas town where they live and she is worried about fitting in--and Quijana suspects that her parents are...

Bullied and shamed her whole life for being fat, twelve-year-old Ellie finally gains the confidence to stand up for herself, with the help of some wonderful new allies.

"Guatemalan-American high school senior Millie Vargas struggles to balance her family's needs with her own ambitions, especially after her mother's employer, a Senate candidate, uses Millie as a poster child for 'deserving' immigrants"--

Jake Cullen, fourteen, lives in the shadows of his father and older brother until he becomes the starting quarterback for the high school football team and finally has his chance to shine.

When Victoria Cruz wakes up in the psychiatric ward of a Texas hospital after her failed suicide attempt, she still has no desire to live, but as the weeks pass, and she meets Dr. Desai and three of the other patients, she begins to reflect on the reasons why she feels like a loser compared with the rest of her family, and to see a path ahead where she can make a life of her own.

"Yusuf is excited to start middle school in his small Texas town, but with the twentieth anniversary of the September 11 attacks coming up, suddenly it feels like the country's same anger and grief is all focused on his Muslim community"--

While visiting her friend Mia in Texas and helping at Aunt Suze's bed and breakfast, Helicity Dunlap gets caught in a derecho and loses track of her older brother, Andy.

December comes to Texas and there is a catfish fishing contest at Arrowhead Lake with a special prize awaiting the winning adult/child team; Kylie's brother and father are entered as one team, and Kylie Jean convinces her grandfather to enter with her as another team--and Kylie dreams of catching Granddaddy Whiskers, a legendary blue catfish that has eluded fishermen for years.

Grounded for the summer by her sometimes-evil stepmother, seventeen-year-old vegan feminist Ellen Lopez-Rourke gets permission to join a Quidditch team, where she makes new, if nerdy, friends.

Hank the Cowdog must get used to a new dog called Happy, a yellow Labrador.