Elana K Arnold

"There are a few things you should know about Harriet Wermer: She just finished third grade. She has a perfect cat named Matzo Ball. She doesn't always tell the truth. She is very happy to be spending summer vacation away from home and her mom and dad and all the wonderful things she had been planning all year. Okay, maybe that last one isn't entirely the truth. Of course, there's nothing Harriet doesn't like about Marble Island, the small island...

Alder has always lived in his cozy little house in Southern California. An old, reliable, comforting walnut tree has stood between his house and the one next door. When a new family--with a particularly annoying girl his age named Oak--moves into the neighboring house, they cut the tree down. As Oak and Alder start school together, they can't imagine ever becoming friends. But they soon discover a series of mysterious, possibly magical, connections...

When Bat's older sister Janie gets a part in the school play, and can't watch him after school, it means some pretty big changes. For one, someone else will have to take care of the skunk kit in the afternoons.

"Bat grows anxious as his third-grade year comes to an end and the time to release his pet skunk, Thor, out into the wild approaches"--

Sixteen-year-old Nina Faye navigates the difficult world of teenage relationships and dysfunctional family dynamics.

Unhappy about moving from sunny California to rainy Corvallis, Oregon, and grieving over the death of her best friend, sixth-grader Iris looks for a miracle and may find one in new friend Boris.

"Have you ever walked a chicken on a leash? Well, chicken expert Starla Jean will let you know first hand, it's not easy. But that doesn't stop Starla from taking her pet chicken, Opal Egg, and her baby sister, Willa, out on a stroll through the neighborhood. On their walk, they stumble upon a mysterious bead. And then another! Before they know it, there's a conundrum on their hands, and it's up to Starla and her friends to figure out just who exactly...

As far as twelve-year-old Odette Zyskowski is concerned, her parents have ruined her life by selling the house she and her younger brother have grown up in, getting an RV, and giving her some little mutt instead of the Labrador Retriever she wanted--but as they travel north to see her grandmother, Odette becomes aware of an even more frightening problem: her parents may be on the verge of a divorce.

It is Willa's first birthday, and between big sister Starla Jean, her pet chicken Opal Egg, and her new neighbor Nate's pet kitten, there is bound to be chaos--especially when it comes to baking a cake.

In the scorching Nevada desert during the Burning Man festival, a small town boy meets a Gypsy girl, when both are at crossroads in their lives.