A collection of folktales from various cultures illuminate the mother-son relationship.

The residents of Hard Pan, California, come together to help Brigitte and Lucky when the County Health Department threatens to close down the café, and meantime Miles's life is complicated by his mother's return.

Maverick Falconer is just starting middle school and he wishes he were a hero like his father because maybe then he could deal with his mother's drinking and series of abusive boyfriends, not to mention the kids who bully him in middle school (pretty much the same ones who bullied him in elementary school)--but as the year passes he begins to realize that other kids have problems too, and maybe if they can all survive sixth-grade things will get better....

"Robert Hoge was born with a tumor the size of a tennis ball in the middle of his face and short, twisted legs, but he refused to let what made him different stand in the way of leading a happy, successful life. This is the true story of how he embraced his circumstances and never let his "ugly" stop him from focusing on what truly mattered."--

When some bullies at his new school almost kill him by slipping a peanut into his sandwich, friendless nerd Ambrose, forced to be home-schooled by his overprotective mother, coerces his neighbor Cosmo into taking him to the West Side Scrabble Club, where people accept him for who he is.

Jalen DeLuca can analyze and predict almost exactly what a pitcher is going to pitch, but without the statistics he has on the pro players, Jalen finds success to be extremely challenging, especially with all the extra drama of his mom coming back into his life.

Duncan, eleven, is very smart with the rare ability to speak Cat, but his mother has always insisted he appear only average, and when a perfect test score draws attention to him, he not only discovers the wisdom of his mother's rules, he finds himself crossing the seas on a quest for his true identity.

When the UNICORNE agency asks him to use his paranormal abilities to investigate a dragon's scale, the same artifact his father was researching before he disappeared, Michael Malone believes he will finally be able to find out what happened to his father--but as he delves into his father's past it becomes harder to tell who he can trust, and which of the alternate realities he is discovering is the true reality.

After a near-fatal car accident, twelve-year-old Ryder's mother needs an operation they cannot afford and while a new friend tries to raise funds, Ryder travels with a grouchy, disabled neighbor, from Yankee Stadium to Turner Field seeking the major league baseball player who might be Ryder's father.

With his ability to travel through time using baseball cards and photographs, thirteen-year-old Joe and his mother go back to 1863 to ask Abner Doubleday whether he invented baseball, but instead find themselves in the middle of the Battle of Gettysburg.