A black family living in the South during the 1930's are faced with prejudice and discrimination which their children don't understand. Warmth, humor and hard times prevail as a black family struggles to maintain dignity and independence in Depression-era Mississippi.

Ten-year-old Beans Curry, a member of the Keepsies, the best marble playing gang in Depression-era Key West, Florida, engages in various schemes to earn money while "New Dealers" from Washington, D.C., arrive to turn run down Key West into a tourist resort. Grown-ups lie. That’s one truth Beans knows for sure. He and his gang know how to spot a whopper a mile away, because they are the savviest bunch of barefoot conchs (that means “locals”)...

"For Kit, the Depression has brought big changes: a houseful of boarders, tons of chores, and no birthday party. Then Aunt Millie arrives, and it looks as if her great ideas might turn things around for the Kittredges. But when Kit's taste for adventure gets her into trouble, she discovers that the Depression has hit a lot of people far worse than her own family. Can one girl make a difference for homeless kids--when even grownups have lost hope?"--...

When ten-year-old Margaríta Sandoval's family moves to Wyoming during the Great Depression, she faces racism, homesickness, and the possibility that her grandmother's land in New Mexico may be lost.

"When they started Mystery Solvers Inc., [Colin and Nevaeh] didn't expect to be asked to find a ghost. Ree recruits them to investigate a series of old, spooky photos left behind in her family's new house. The photos show a boy who looks totally see-through. And in some, he's in a coffin. That's not so odd for Ree, who lives above a funeral home. But when Colin and Nevaeh start investigating, they discover other sightings of the boy, and other secrets...