New friends and a mystery help Aden, thirteen, adjust to middle school and life at a dying western theme park in a new state, where her being born armless presents many challenges.
In China, a foundling girl with a deformed hand raised in secret by an American woman must navigate China's strict adoption system when she is torn away from the only family she has ever known.
"After eleven-year-old David Bravo wishes for a do-over of a disastrous day of middle school, he and a shapeshifting spirit guide try to right a wrong in his past"--
"When twelve-year-old Edie finds letters and photographs in her attic that change everything she thought she knew about her Native American mother's adoption, she realizes she has a lot to learn about her family's history and her own identity"--
Under a new government program based on the saying "It takes a village to raise a child, " the Baudelaire orphans are adopted by an entire town, with disastrous results.
Dara Palmer dreams of being an actress, but when she does not get a part in the school play she wonders if it is because of her different looks as an adopted girl from Cambodia, so Dara becomes determined not to let prejudice stop her from being in the spotlight.