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.

Anne, an eleven-year-old orphan, is sent by mistake to live with a lonely, middle-aged brother and sister on a Prince Edward Island farm and proceeds to make an indelible impression on everyone around her.

After her father returns from the war moody and tired, Marly's family decides to move to Maple Hill Farm in the Pennsylvania countryside where they share many adventures, restoring their spirits and their bond with each other.

A lonely nineteen-year-old working at a local pool hall accepts an invitation from her charismatic coworker to take revenge on a creepy customer, leading to an amazing friendship but also an introduction to pills and hustling to maintain the high.

Fourteen-year-old Eleanor "Peewee" McGrath, a tomboy and automobile enthusiast, discovers new possibilities for her future after the 1914 arrival in her small Indiana town of four young librarians.

Occasionally thoughtless, always headstrong, and constantly meddling in the affairs of her friends, Emma is a character for the ages. Hers is a story that has seamlessly translated to contemporary life. Sparkling with rare literary energy, Emma is a comedy of manners, depicting the self-contained world of 19th-century English life.

In the year before they become the orphans known as the Boxcar children, Henry, Jessie, Violet, and Benny Alden live with their parents at Fair Meadow Farm, where, although times are hard, they take in a family who has been stranded in their car during a blizzard.

Publisher Annotation: Gray skies, foamy waves, and brisk wind await Granny and Bean when they head out for their day by the sea. But they are full of only wonder and delight at all the shore has to offer. They listen for the shrieks of the seabirds as they discover treasures hidden in the sand, greet dogs as they pass, leap over logs, and settle out of the wind for a cozy treat before tramping homeward again. Rendered in simple, lilting text by Newbery...

Against the backdrop of post-World War II Australia, Sarah Adams is a nurse who becomes involved in the affairs of the wealthy Bligh family. It is dealing with themes such as anti-Semitism, sexuality, and social class.