When nine-year-old Clem's father dies in the Port Chicago Disaster he is forced to navigate his family's losses and strunggles in 1940's Chicago.

Fifth-grader Brittany struggles to plan, or even imagine, a future away from her mother's abusive boyfriend and the poverty and crime of Chicago's West Side.

Maya Aziz is caught between her India-born parents' world of college and marrying a suitable Muslim boy, and her dream world of film school and dating her classmate, Phil. In the aftermath of a terrorist attack hundreds of miles away, the community she's known since birth is transformed by fear, bigotry, and hatred.

Honoria, Shohei, and Elias, who are "united together against That Which Is The Peshtigo School," face conflict over their budding romantic interest and a science project gone awry.

High school freshman Ryan Walsh, a Chicago Cubs fan, meets Nick when they both skip school on opening day, and their blossoming relationship becomes difficult for Ryan when she discovers that Nick is seriously ill and she again feels the pain of losing her father five years earlier.

"After seventh-grader Jerome is shot by a white police officer, he observes the aftermath of his death and meets the ghosts of other fallen black boys, including historical figure Emmett Till"--Provided by publisher.

High schooler Natalie Ng has always kept secret her talent for talking with cats, but when she learns-- from a cat-- that a celebrity has been replaced by an imposter, she and her friends investigate, becoming movie extras to get the scoop.

On a cold winter day in Chicago, Early's father disappeared, and now she, her mother and her brother have been forced to flee their apartment and join the ranks of the homeless--and it is up to Early to hold her family together and solve the mystery surrounding her father.