When a major earthquake hits California, trapping seventeen-year-old Ruby with Charlie, a near-stranger, in a laundromat, they struggle to stay alive and hopeful with only memories and each other's voices to sustain them.

"Sixteen-year-old Charlie has always been a tomboy, but when she accidentally becomes a makeup model, her newfound feminity draws her into an unknown social world, complete with guy troubles she's never had before"--

"Sixteen-year-old San Franciscan Lucy Beck-Moreau once had a promising future as a concert pianist. Her chance at a career has passed, and she decides to help her ten-year-old piano prodigy brother, Gus, map out his own future, even as she explores why she enjoyed piano in the first place."--

Seventh-grader Abby Lovitt grows up on her family's California horse ranch in the 1960s, learning to train the horses her father sells and trying to reconcile her strict religious upbringing with her own ideas about life.

The last remaining orange tree on a Southern California street brings together neighbors of all ages as they face their problems and anxieties, including the possibility that a mysterious stranger is a threat to their tree.

"Abby Lovitt is put in charge of training the expensive and haughty horse Pie in the Sky when his owner refuses. While trying to get a hold on him, she must deal with the new challenges, both good and bad, that come with being a freshman in high school in 1970's Northern California." -- Publisher.

"Jeff is the new guy in school and the only one who can see Kimberlee, a ghost with a lot of (stolen) baggage. To help her move on, Jeff must return everything she stole when she was alive. But being Kimberlee's accomplice turns into more than he bargained for when his crush and the cops get involved"--

"Danny Cheng has always known his parents have secrets. But when he discovers a taped-up box in his father's closet filled with old letters and a file on a powerful Bay Area family, he realizes there's much more to his family's past than he ever imagined. Danny has been an artist for as long as he can remember and it seems his path is set, with a scholarship to RISD and his family's blessing to pursue the career he's always dreamed of. Still, contemplating...

"Suzette returns home to Los Angeles from boarding school and grapples with her bisexual identity when she and her brother Lionel fall in love with the same girl, pushing Lionel's bipolar disorder to spin out of control and forcing Suzette to confront her own demons"--

Four diverse seventh and eighth graders at southern California's San Paulo Junior High tell, from their unique perspectives, of a tumultuous year of changing friendships and romantic interests as they are learning to be themselves.