Although he is continually getting into trouble, Tapiwa’s uncle becomes her best friend when he comes from Mozambique to live with her family in Harare, Zimbabwe.

Millie’s is a small family — just a mother, a father, a small brother, Hamish, and her. Both her parents had been orphaned (and were introduced in Watts’ novel Flower), but the family they created was tight-knit and loving. When Millie’s mother announces that she is pregnant, it seems life is perfect. They have each other, and, although the Great Depression has brought hard times to their small town, Millie’s father’s services as a blacksmith are still in demand. But when her mother dies, suddenly everything changes. Her father retreats into depression and Millie, only thirteen, finds herself responsible for a newborn baby. When a stranger appears and threatens the remnants of the family even further, Millie musters courage she never dreamed she had to rebuild the home that means so much to her.Irene N. Watts’ memorable story is as complex and as comforting as family life itself.

With a new baby sister and a stepfather, the life of eleven-year-old Jake is full of change, but nothing prepares him for his relationship with an enigmatic girl, her large family, and the tragedy that strikes them all.

Relates the life experiences, from birth to beginning boarding school, of a boy growing up on a rubber plantation in rural Malaysia.

Tom is not happy about the arrival of his new baby brother until his parents show that change can be a positive experience.

In the journal her fifth-year teacher requires, Jillian records the ups and downs of her efforts to become popular as she hosts a class party, creates a school magazine, and tutors some socially misfit boys.

In her Bangladesh village, ten-year-old Naimi excels at painting designs called alpanas, but to help her impoverished family financially she would have to be a boy or disguise herself as one. Bangladesh is a country in South Asia surrounded by India.

Wanting the two girls in the sandbox to take notice of him, young Anthony breaks out all of his best tricks to get them to look his way but to no avail.

When Luzolo goes to market with her parents, she learns that it takes a great deal of bartering to finally get what she wants.

A boy and a girl build a boat and sail off to find Captain Bart’s buried treasure.