In the summer before seventh grade, twelve-year-old Iris Diaz-Pinkowitz goes up and down the fire escape outside her new New York City apartment, becoming an integral part of the lives of her human and animal neighbors.
Thirteen-year-old Katya convinces her parents to try homeschooling her for a month, but while she is finally excited about learning--and about Milo, the violin prodigy who lives nearby--not everything works out as she had hoped.
While spending his Christmas vacation in New York City with his father and new stepfamily, twelve-year Lucas meets a rebellious agent of the secret Annoyance Bureau, which exists to control or eliminate all sources of annoyance in the modern world.