Laurie Halse Anderson

Overview: The first ten lies they tell you in high school. "Speak up for yourself--we want to know what you have to say." From the first moment of her freshman year at Merryweather High, Melinda knows this is a big fat lie, part of the nonsense of high school. She is friendless, outcast, because she busted an end-of-summer party by calling the cops, so now nobody will talk to her, let alone listen to her. As time passes, she becomes increasingly isolated...

After finally getting noticed by someone other than school bullies and his ever-angry father, seventeen-year-old Tyler enjoys his tough new reputation and the attentions of a popular girl, but when life starts to go bad again, he must choose between transforming himself or giving in to his destructive thoughts.

Separated from his friend Isabel after their daring escape from slavery, fifteen-year-old Curzon serves as a free man in the Continental Army at Valley Forge until he and Isabel are thrown together again, as slaves once more.

"Hayley Kincaid and her father move back to their hometown to try a "normal" life, but the horrors he saw in the war threaten to destroy their lives"--

When her owner dies at the start of the Revolution, a greedy nephew keeps Isabel and her younger sister enslaved and sells them to Loyalists in New York, where she is offered the chance to spy for the Patriots.

With the help of her veterinarian grandmother and the other volunteers at the Wild at Heart Animal Clinic, eleven-year-old Maggie rescues sick puppies from an illegal puppy mill.

After being sold to a cruel couple in New York City, a slave named Isabel spies for the rebels during the Revolutionary War.

Charity has chicken pox, there's a terrible snowstorm outside, and it looks like the Chatfields will have to spend Thanksgiving without Nana and her wonderful roast turkey, stuffing, and cranberries.

Sunita and her fellow volunteers at the Wild at Heart veterinary clinic become involved in efforts to save a bunch of feral and abandoned cats with the help of Dr. Mac.

Seeing Jane's dog, Yum-Yum, help cheer up children in a cancer ward makes Zoe think about having her puppy, Sneakers, trained to do therapy, too, especially when Yum-Yum becomes very ill.