"It wasn't the thoughts of tomorrow that kept Charlie from his sleep. It was the sounds of today's fight that horrified him now. The cries of the wounded men left on the field burned in his ears. Men from both sides were suffering as they lay on the cold ground with no cover and no water. The sight of all the dead, who were no longer suffering but whose families would when they received the news, still played in his mind." War is no place for a child, and yet many boys found themselves, for various reasons, in the middle of the fight during the War Between the States. For Johnny and Charlie, this was the case. Both boys couldn't see themselves anywhere else but fighting for their cause, and both boys would soon find out, firsthand, the absolute tragedy of war. In the midst of all their differences, will they see they are actually quite the same, even though one is Little Blue, and one Little Gray?

Nine-year-old Jodie loves baseball more than anything. But in 1951 baseball is exclusively a boys' game, and, even though Jodie is a far better player than most boys her age, she is not allowed to join the team. Jodie's life is filled with even more frustrations and disappointments as she tries to untangle all of her family's old secrets. Every Sunday Mama delivers two roses: one to Daddy's grave and the other to a secret place. "You'll understand when you're older," Mama says. But Jodie wants to know now. All Jodie can do is help Mama make ends meet and hope that, one day soon, she will understand these mysteries. Not until Jodie's world is turned upside-down does she learn the secrets of her family. Reading Mama's old diary, Jodie discovers a past filled with wealth, grief, and jealousy. She is more confused than ever. Was Mama right? Is Jodie too young to understand The Secret and the Sunday Rose?

In 1861 ten-year-old Rachel Franklin and her family are pulled into the midst of the Civil War. Though at first the glory of fighting for the southern Cause brought pride and excitement into the Franklin home, the truth of war's hardships soon become apparent. Before the war the biggest worries for Rachel were using proper manners and controlling her jealousy towards her brother Bud's sweetheart, Suzanna Wade. Now Rachel and her mother must work the gardens, pick cotton, tend to their wounded men, and wait between letters with only hope that their loved ones survive. "We must be strong," Mama tells her, and on the night when Rachel must deliver an important message for Papa to save the lives of countless men, she learns the true meaning of bravery when she becomes a little Rebel in Petticoats.