After losing her parents during the "Contamination," which turned people into crazed psychopaths, Velvet Ellis struggled to get by and raise her younger sister. Now that the victims of the Contamination are being rehabilitated, Velvet hopes to be able to rebuild her family -- but soon learns that the worst is yet to come.

Samuel and his younger brother, Joshua, are free black boys living in an orphanage during the Civil War, but when Samuel takes the blame for his brother's prank, he is sent South, given a new name, and sold into slavery--and somehow he must survive both captivity and the war, to find his way back to his brother.

Aluna and Hoku, Kampii from the City of Shifting Tides, and their friends, Equian Dash and winged Aviar Calli, are determined to stop a war. The maniacal ex-scientist Karl Strand is planning to conquer the world with his enormous army of tech-enhanced soldiers-- unless the four friends can get to Strand first. Aluna's plan is dangerous: pose as Upgraders and infiltrate the army. But the enemy isn't what they expected and the strategy begins to crumble....

Zenji Watanabe, seventeen, is sent from Hawaii to the Philippines to spy on the Japanese during World War II and, after he is captured and tortured, must find a way to survive months of being lost in the jungle behind enemy lines.

"The Contamination that turns people into ultra-violent zombie-like creatures is abating, but now seventeen-year-old Velvet must hide from checkpoints for the disease, to prevent the government from imprisoning her"--

In the Middle Ages, young squire Tristan of the Knights Templar, King's Archer Robard, and Muslim assassin Maryam work together to protect the Holy Grail as they travel across France toward England, a journey that takes them to the Cathar fortress of Montségur.

When slaves rebel in ancient Sparta, twelve-year-old Lysander, guarded by an heirloom amulet, the Fire of Ares, is caught between the Spartan ruling class, with whom he has been training as a warrior since his noble heritage was revealed, and those among whom he was recently laboring as a slave.

Derrick "D-Bow" Bowman thought sophomore year would be easier, but his girlfriend Jasmine leaves him for putting too much focus on basketball, the jump shot he worked on all summer is not working, and his father has a heart attack, forcing Derrick to accept that basketball cannot be his only priority.