Meet Ambrose - a twelve-year-old with a talent for mismatching his clothes, for saying the wrong thing at the worst possible time, and for words. In short, he's a self-described nerd. Making friends is especially hard because he and his overprotective mother, Irene, have had to move so often. When bullies at his latest school almost kill him by deliberately slipping a peanut into his sandwich, Ambrose is philosophical. Irene, however, is not, and decides that Ambrose will take correspondence classes from home.

Home is the basement apartment in a house owned by a kindly Greek couple. Surely Ambrose will be safe here. But unbeknownst to his mother, Ambrose strikes up an unlikely one-way friendship with the landlord's son, Cosmo, based on the only thing they have in common: a love of Scrabble. Ambrose learned to play with his mother at the kitchen table. Cosmo learned to play in prison. When Ambrose convinces the reluctant Cosmo to take him to a Scrabble club, a small deception mushrooms and they both find much more than they bargained for, from run-ins with lowlifes to high romance.

In this brilliantly observed novel, author Susin Nielsen transports the reader to the world of competitive Scrabble as seen from the honest yet funny viewpoint of a boy who's searching for acceptance and for a place to call home.

Fergus is invisible, but the string that Hank uses as his leash is not. Cooper, the new boy next door, sees only the string, not the dog. He also sees the large birthmark on Hank's face. Thus begins a war between the two boys, a struggle that threatens to dissolve all hope for the friendship they both crave. The climax comes when Cooper grabs the string and tries to pull it from Hank's iron grip. What follows brings the boys together without threatening Fergus's existence. In fact, Fergus ends up with a friend of his very own.

When seven-year-old Lily has to do Show and Tell at her new school, her tummy fills with everything from butterflies to buffalos. She has just moved into a family shelter with her mother, and feels she has nothing to show. The Magic Beads is a heartwarming story about the power of imagination and storytelling to help heal past wounds, conquer anxiety and create wonder.

Astrid is excited when she finds out that her Swedish grandmother, Mormor, will be coming to live with Astrid's family after Morfar's death. But when Mormor arrives she is sad and grumpy, and she disapproves of Astrid's beloved stuffed animal, Bjorn. The relationship seems doomed. Then one day on the way to school, something terrible happens that brings out the best in everyone in the end.