From 1939, when Syvia is four and a half years old, to 1945 when she has just turned ten, a Jewish girl and her family struggle to survive in Poland's Lodz ghetto during the Nazi occupation.

In rural Kentucky in 1955, Serilda Collins, single mother of four lively girls, discovers that her orphaned nephew is being subjected to brutality.

When his father returns from the war in 1946, a ten year old boy and his family move from their home in a Montana town to an old, run-down farm in the middle of nowhere where they work hard trying to make ends meet.

Two Scottish sisters, living on the western island of Barra in the 1850s, relate, in alternate voices and linked narrative poems, their experiences after their family is forcibly evicted and separated with one sister accompanying their parents and younger siblings to Cape Breton, Canada, and the other staying behind with other family on the small island of Mingulay.

Harry "Dit" Sims and his newest friend Emma Walker work together to come up with a plan that could save the town barber, an African-American, who is on put on trial and faces a horrible end.

Twelve-year-old Artie Wilson, tired of plowing, planting, and milking the cow on her family's farm during the Great Depression, is determined to escape her life of poverty in Buck Creek, Kentucky, and hopes that school will open the door to a better future.

Edna and members of her family gather fruits, berries, and vegetables on their Virginia farm and turn them into wonderful meals. Includes five recipes and facts about the life of Edna Lewis, a descendant of slaves who grew up to be a famous chef.