When sixth-grader Rosie Saunders asks her best friend Kayo Benton to come along on her family's summer trip, the girls look forward to a perfect vacation. Their first stop is a campground in the colorful Arizona desert, where Rosie and Kayo busily explore trails lined with the almost-human forms of the Saguaro cactus.

Sixth-grader Kayo Benton and her friend, Rosie, are busy trying to find a good home for old Mrs. Tallie's cat, Muffin. But when Rosie gets a menacing phone call warning her to stay away from the old woman, the girls begin to realize that it isn't just the cat that needs help.

The police are on the alert. Vandals are attacking local schools with spray-paint and graffiti. When the gang's next target is Kayo and Rosie's elementary school, the two sixth-grade friends are angry and frightened by the senseless crime. Suddenly one night, the two girls and their canine buddy, Bone Breath, surprise the vandals in action. In the silence, Bone Breath barks. As Kayo and Rosie run, they hear footsteps behind them. A hand reaches out for Rosie.

In a moment of madness, Jeremy Holland's parents were killed by a gunman in a Seattle mall. Now he faces a new life with his uncle Ed, a man with a vastly different lifestyle from the one Jeremy is used to. As he sits on the train hurtling toward Chicago, he can barely believe the terrible truth. He has no mother, no father, no home. Suddenly the impossible happens - again - as the train crashes in a blaze of fire, twisted metal, and screaming people. Jeremy staggers off, wandering aimlessly. He finds a deserted cabin in the woods, which seems to be just waiting for him.

Sixth graders Kayo and Rosie are on a motor-home trip with Rosie's parents in the North Cascades National Park. The two girls can't resist a chance to hike high up into the hills, where they sight several bald eagles. But when a poacher nabs one of the baby eaglets from its lofty nest, Kayo and Rosie suddenly find themselves on a dangerous chase that will lead them deep into unfamiliar territory.