Twelve-year-old Foster McFee and her mother escape from her mother's abusive boyfriend and end up in the small town of Culpepper, West Virginia, where they use their strengths and challenge themselves to build a new life, with the help of the friends they make there.

Told in two voices, Jules, whose father is restoring an abandoned house, and a girl who lived there a century before begin to communicate and slowly, the girl's tragic story is revealed.--

In the poverty of the Appalachian coal country in 1908, eight-year-old Minna's life gets even more difficult after her father dies of black lung, and that winter she cannot go to school because she does not have a coat--until the quilting mothers make her a coat using pieces of cloth from their own lives, each with a special story behind it.

Stink Moody, friends Webster and Sophie, and Mrs. Birdwistle visit tourist attractions in Virginia as they try to give away 101 guinea pigs rescued from a laboratory, although Stink is very reluctant to relinquish his favorite, Astro.

Callie struggles to understand slavery when her stepbrother is sold away at the start of the Civil War, but is determined her whole family will be free one day. Includes historical notes.

"When two brothers decide to prove how brave they are, everything backfires--literally"--

"On a family trip to Washington, DC, Jack watches the soldier guarding the Tomb of the Unknowns and gains new understanding and respect for those who serve in the United States armed forces. Includes information about the Tomb and the soldiers who guard it"--Provided by publisher. Jack and his family are on a trip to Washington, D.C., and when they visit Arlington National Cemetery Jack watches the soldier guarding the Tomb of the Unknowns march...

When seventeen-year-old Katy moves to West Virginia she expects to be bored, until she meets her neighbor who just happens to be an alien.

Lani must convince her parents not to have her transferred from Chestnut Hill to another school.