When a flood forces Nory and her best friends to evacuate Dunwiddle and relocate to prestigious Sage Academy, the upside-down magic students have a hard time fitting in.

"Five puppets confront circumstances beyond their control with patience, cunning, and high spirits ... Shut up in a trunk by a taciturn old sea captain with a secret, five friends--a king, a wolf, a girl, a boy, and an owl--bicker, boast, and comfort one another in the dark. Individually, they dream of song and light, freedom and flight, purpose and glory, but they all agree they are part of a larger story, bound each to each by chance, bonded by...

Twelve-year-old Héctor Muñoz, fleeing from bullies, discovers a magical closet that not only provides him sanctuary, but also unites him with two other kids facing similar problems at their own schools, helping them find friendship and strength in each other.

After revealing her hybrid nature to Septimus beyond her pack, Manu hopes that superstition and suspicion do not prevent her and her friends from finding allies in their fight for a better future.

Initially, super-snazzy Christmas tree ornament Otto thinks he should be placed at the top of tree to be admired, but then he realizes where he really wants to be.

Brody Fair feels like nobody gets him: not his overworked parents, not his genius older brother, and definitely not the girls in the projects set on making his life miserable. Then he meets Nico, an art student who takes Brody to Everland, a "knock-off Narnia" that opens its door at 11:21pm each Thursday for Nico and his band of present-day misfits and miscreants. Here Brody finds his tribe and a weekly respite from a world where he feels out of place....

"As a biracial orphan, Rika has never felt like she fully belonged to her family or the Little Tokyo community in LA, until she embarks on a fairy tale-like quest to discover if America's leading movie star could be her biological mother"--

Eleven-year-old injured soccer player Luz has a hard enough time reframing her identity as a computer programmer, but when her Guatemalan half-sister moves in, she learns what it truly means to start over. Includes author's note.

When lonely Ravani Foster discovers his new friend Virginia and her six mysterious runaway companions are in danger, he must fight to keep them safe, or lose the only person who has ever understood him In the dead of night, a truck arrives in Slaughterville, a small town curiously named after its windowless slaughterhouse. Seven mysterious kids with suitcases step out of the vehicle and into an abandoned home on a dead-end street, looking over their...

"When a little slug finds new friends in the backyard, she notices they look a lot like her ... except they have shells! Maybe a shell is exactly what she needs to fit in--but finding one is a lot harder than it sounds!"--