It's 1936 Flint, Michigan. Times may be hard, and 10-year-old Bud may be a motherless boy, but Bud's got a few things going for him: 1. He has his own suitcase full of special things; 2. He's the author of "Bud Caldwell's Rules and Things for Having a Funner Life and Making a Better Liar Out of Yourself"; 3. His momma never told him who his father was, but she left a clue: posters of Herman E. Cal ...

After his parents die, Jeffrey Lionel Magee's life becomes legendary, as he accomplishes athletic and other feats which awe his contemporaries, in Spinelli's Newbery Medal-winning novel.

Sam is joined in the Catskill Mountains by his younger sister, Alice, who is quietly living in a tree house of her own. Their peaceful life is shattered when a conservation officer confiscates Sam's falcon, Frightful, and Alice suddenly vanishes.

During the final days of the Civil War, 12-year-old Hannalee is among 2,000 Georgia textile workers shipped north by the Union Army to work in Yankee mills. Can she make her way home to her family?