Janet Taylor Lisle

Twelve-year-old Jessie spends the summer with her family on Quicksand Pond, a New England vacation spot, where she develops a star-crossed friendship with independent Terri, and meets a reclusive old lady whose connection to a murder that took place decades ago still informs her present--and affects Terri in ways that Jessie gradually comes to understand the more time they spend together.

When nine-year-old Angela and her friends begin investigating the letters she has received from her fairy godmother, it helps take Angela's mind off her strained relationship with her father

When their best friend changes drastically, the Investigators suspect extraterrestrial trouble Georgina and Poco should not be climbing an apple tree in the dark. But Poco, who talks to animals, has recently developed a serious crush on a robin, and she gets worried when the bird doesn't return to his nest one night. Poco convinces her friend to come with her to check on the nest, and while they're peering through the tree branches, they see strange...

Years later, Ruben Hart tells the story of how, in 1929 Newport, Rhode Island, his family and his best friend's family were caught up in the violent competition among groups trying to control the local rum-smuggling trade