In this autobiographical memoir, Tony Weaver Jr. starts the seventh grade at yet another new school, but this time he's relentlessly bullied for being a Black nerd who loves toys, video games, comics, and anime. Though he tries to fit in, the bullying continues until he's driven to suicide and his parents intervene and he gets help with recovery. Starting at a new Black school, he befriends another group of nerds and realizes he needs to embrace his weirdo self to thrive.

When a swastika shows up at Chokecherry Middle School in Colorado, the students are shocked. The questions, Who put it there? and Why?, lead three students on a collective journey to find the answers amidst a storm of media attention and finger-pointing. Michael Amorosa, a Dominican American boy of color, found the graffiti and is an immediate suspect. The only Jewish girl, Dana Levinson, is prompted to dig into her family history and help another student who learns about his Jewish roots. Popular boy Link feels pressure from other students to look for a solution, and along with other students, helps with an art project to counter the graffiti.

Exactly one year after her mother died in a random public shooting, Nora and her father go on a rock-climbing trip to the desert Southwest. After they descend into a canyon, her father and all their supplies get washed away in a flash flood. Nora is left to try to find her way to safety alone, facing dehydration, dangerous desert animals, and her PTSD.

In 1793 Philadelphia, sixteen-year-old Matilda Cook, separated from her sick mother, learns about perseverance and self-reliance when she is forced to cope with the horrors of a yellow fever epidemic.

In a future North America, where the rulers of Panem maintain control through an annual televised survival competition pitting young people from each of the twelve districts against one another, sixteen-year-old Katniss's skills are put to the test when she voluntarily takes her younger sister's place.