The seventh graders and their Star Wars-inspired Origami finger puppets go on a field trip to Washington, D.C., on what proves to be a very long trip full of shifting alliances, betrayals, carsickness, and sugar rushes.

"From a wartime brothel to the intricate high society of 1870s Brussels, "Under the Poppy" is a breakout novel of childhood friends, a love triangle, puppet masters, and reluctant spies. Under the Poppy is a brothel owned by Decca and Rupert. Decca is in love with Rupert but he in turn is in love with her brother, Istvan. When Istvan comes to town, louche puppet troupe in tow, the lines of their age-old desires intersect against a backdrop of approaching...

Eleven-year-old Chance accidentally helps Penny, a lonely marionette who cannot remember who she is or where she came from, discover the truth of her past.

Harvey, upset when his Darth Paper finger puppet brings humiliation, gets Dwight suspended, but Origami Yoda asks Tommy and Kellan, now in seventh grade, to make a new casefile to persuade the School Board to reinstate Dwight.

Flavia de Luce applies her skills in the chemistry lab to solving the murder of a master puppeteer, a case that is further complicated by her tormenting sisters.

One month before the state standards test are to take place, the Origami Rebel Alliance has found powerful allies in unexpected places in their fight against the FunTime test preparation program, but Principal Rabbski has not yet declared her allegiance.

In the world of Down, young sisters Summer and Bird are separated and go in very different directions as they seek their missing parents, try to vanquish the evil Puppeteer, lead the talking birds back to their Green Home, and discover the identity of the true bird queen.

"John Chandagnac travels to the new world after the death of his puppeteer father to confront his uncle, who has apparently made off with the family fortune. During the voyage, he befriends Beth Hurwood and her father Benjamin Hurwood, an Oxford professor. Before they arrive at their destination, their ship is waylaid by Blackbeard and his band of pirates. With the help of the professor and his assistant, the captain is killed and Chandagnac is pressed...

One night Melanie walks through the garden in her mother's wedding dress. The next morning her world is shattered. Forced to leave the comforatable home of her childhood, she is sent to London to live with relatives she has never met: Aunt Margaret, beautiful and speechless, and her brothers, Francie, whose graceful music believes his clumsy nature, and the volatile Finn, who kisses Melanie in the ruins of the pleasure gardens. And brooking Uncole...