Fourteen-year-old Toni has always felt lucky--but her luck begins to change the summer her father suffers a near-fatal heart attack, her best friend moves away, and Toni is sent to New York City stay with her older sister, Martine, who reveals a devastating secret about their family.

Eleven-year-old Joyce doesn't mind living near a garbage dump. She likes helping her uncle, Old Dad, run it. What she does mind is being different, and getting called Dump Queen. Even worse than her classmates' teasing is knowing that her mother isn't there to shield her from the pain.

Being different doesn't bother Mrs. Fish, the new school custodian, who dresses oddly and sings in the hallways. At first, like the other kids. Joyce thinks Mrs. Fish is crazy and shuns her. But "Crazy Fish" turns out to be the one person who shares everything with Joyce -- her food and her cat, her stories and her wisdom. If only Joyce's new friend could come and live with her. But can Joyce convince Old Dad, who doesn't trust anyone, that he needs Mrs. Fish as much as she does?

Jessie Wells can't remember her father, James--he left her family when she was very young. Now fifteen, Jessie has a sudden desire to track down the man she always thought of as "the disappearing dude." She calls all the Wellses in the phone book, hoping to speak to someone who knows her father. But will she be prepared when she finally finds him?

This is the story of five sisters--Beauty, Mim, Stevie, Fancy, and Autumn--and the man who watches men.

He could be any ordinary man . . . but he's not. Unaware of his scrutiny and his increasingly forbidden thoughts about them, the sisters go on with their ordinary lives--planning, arguing, laughing, and crying--as if nothing bad could ever breach the security of their family.

In alternating points of view, Norma Fox Mazer manages to interweave the lives of predator and prey in this unforgettable psychological thriller.

Karin Levi's world of family, school, and friends is torn apart when the German army occupies Paris in June of 1940. Karin and her brother, Marc, like Jews all over Europe, find themselves on the run, seeking safety wherever they can find it. When Marc obtains two coveted places aboard a ship bound for the United States, Karin knows that crossing the ocean means she may never see her beloved parents again. Yet she and Marc have little choice if they are to survive. Karin's unforgettable story--revealing the little-known world of a handful of European refugees in World War II America--tells of survival, of growing up, and of love's ability to endure even the most extraordinary circumstances.

When Vicki's father is laid off from his job, everything changes. Her family moves to a city apartment, and Vicki has to forge a new path at her urban school. Worst of all, one night her depressed father simply disappears. Vicki soon finds herself living a double life--fine on the outside, anything "but" fine on the inside--and that leads to a moral dilemma she's ultimately forced to confront.