In 1935, when her mother gets a job housekeeping for a woman who does not like children, eleven-year-old Turtle is sent to stay with relatives she has never met in far away Key West, Florida.

As the only girl in a Finnish American family of seven brothers, May Amelia Jackson resents being expected to act like a lady while growing up in Washington state in 1899.

"Bell has spent his whole life - all eleven years of it - on Mars. But he's still just a regular kid - he loves cats, any kind of cake, and is curious about the secrets the adults in the US colony are keeping. Like, why don't have contact with anyone on the other Mars colonies? Why are they so isolated? When a virus breaks out and the grown-ups all fall ill, Bell and the other children are the only ones who can help. It's up to Bell - a regular kid...

It's summer and Sunny is bored. Most of her friends are out of town. Her mom wants her to babysit way more than Sunny wants to babysit. There's nothing good on TV. The only cool place that's cool is the community pool. Sunny loves going there - and loves it even more when she's offered a job at the snack shack. Soon she's flinging fries and serving frozen ice cream treats - with the assistance of the very sweet boy who works with her. Life is best...