In this book, Beast Rider, Manuel runs from his home in Mexico to meet his brother in Los Angeles. He does this by riding on top of a train, which is of course very dangerous. On the train, he meets people who are friendly and others who are not so much. At a stop, when he tries to get back on the train, he is caught by a gang who steals the little bit of money and food he has, beats him up, and leaves him to die. He is rescued by a nice lady who nurses him back to health, and after about a year, he is ready to go back on the train.
Me and Sam-Sam Handle the Apocalypse alternates between two stories: one before and one after the tornado. Before the tornado, Jesse's dad is arrested for stealing the money in the library fund, which he did not do. Jesse, and her new friend, Springer, decide to investigate who really took it, while also standing up to bullies. They also try to train Sam-Sam to sniff out containers so he can learn to be a bomb-sniffing dog. After the tornado, Jesse runs back to her house in search of her beloved dog.
In Count Me In, there is a girl named Karina. Her Grandpa comes to live with them and decides to work as a tutor for Karina´s school. He ends up tutoring a boy named Chris who treated Karina badly in earlier years, but Chris and Karina both realize that the other may not be so bad after all and they begin to become friends. Then, when they are walking home with Karina´s grandpa one day, her grandpa is attacked because he and Karina are not white. Karina´s grandpa is put in the hospital, and a lot of people are really supportive.
In The Beast and the Bethany, there is a man, Ebenezer Tweezer, who is 511 years old and keeps a beast in a room in his house. He feeds the beast whatever it wants, and in return, the beast gives him gifts and potions to make him stay young. The beast gets more and more greedy with his requests for food and eventually requests a child to eat. Ebenezer finds the most awful child he can, and that is Bethany. But as he gets to know Bethany, he finds out that maybe she doesn´t deserve to be eaten.
