Hilary McKay

Spurred on by his youngest sister, Rose, twelve-year-old Indigo sticks up for himself and an American boy who has replaced him as the primary target of the school bullies.

As Christmas approaches, eleven-year-old Rose, the youngest member of the eccentric Casson family, discovers that life is filled with both catastrophic problems and wonderful surprises.

Twelve-year-old Caddy's world turns upside down when her father, Bill, temporarily becomes a stay at home "mom" and her best friends since kindergarten, Ali, Beth, and Ruby, begin to move in different directions.

Ten-year-old Robin Brogan is determined to keep the dog he finds abandoned on the beach from being impounded by the police.

Seven-year-old Lulu and her cousin think their vacation house is the most perfect place ever until they find a trouble-prone, stray dog living on the beach.

Although she is afraid, Sophie is determined to confront the dragon that she thinks she hears downstairs at night.

Eleven-year-old Binny struggles to cope with her father's death and the loss of her beloved dog while she adjusts to a new home that might be haunted by her horrible Aunt Violet.

When Big Grandma takes the four Conroy sisters on holiday as a cure for the "family failing, " the girls wonder if their grandmother herself is still susceptible to it.

"When Lulu's next-door neighbor doesn't seem to be looking after his rabbit properly, Lulu and her cousin Mellie devise a scheme to make him pay more attention to his pet"--

In 1902 England, Clarry and Peter struggle with the challenges of living with an indifferent father, but the summers they spend in Cornwall with their grandparents and cousin Rupert provide much needed comfort, and in the years that follow Clarry looks back on those leisurely days to help her cope with the trying times of World War I and its aftermath.