With insight and a light touch, best-selling, Newbery Honor-winning author Gary D. Schmidt tells two poignant, linked stories: that of a grieving girl and a boy trying to escape his violent past. Following the death of her closest friend in summer 1968, Meryl Lee Kowalski goes off to St. Elene's Preparatory Academy for Girls, where she struggles to navigate the venerable boarding school's traditions and a social structure heavily weighted toward students...

All the fruits gather together and enjoy a rhyming party, but poor Orange feels left out because he does not rhyme with anything--until Apple invents a new word.

Alberto, the town's coffin maker, and Tito, a runaway boy, both lonely after suffering tragic losses, learn the power of friendship as they try to escape the shadows of their pasts.

When Little Robot finds a creative solution to his lonliness he gets straight to work on shaping the perfect companion out of metal, and affectionately names him Little Dog.

Ollie, who has seizures when near electricity, lives in a backwoods cabin with his mother and rarely sees other people, and Moritz, born with no eyes and a heart defect that requires a pacemaker, is bullied at his high school, but when a physician who knows both suggests they begin corresponding, they form a strong bond that may get them through dark times.

A young bear cub, who is alone in the world, and Old Bear, who is grumpy and tired of living alone, meet and discover what they have been missing.

After venturing outside to find someone to play with, an inquisitive black cat gets lost in the city. He dreams of finding his family again but convinced he has become invisible, will anyone come looking for him? Journey through stunning city and dreamscapes in an uplifting story of lost and found, hope and love.

Dragon is lonely so he goes looking for a friend and when an apple falls on his head he is convinced that he has found one; but at home Apple is quiet and unresponsive, and when a visit to the doctor only makes things worse, Dragon mourns the loss of his friend--until an apple tree grows where Apple is buried.

Caspian lives alone in a lighthouse surrounded by the cold gray-blue sea, longing for a friend; so one day he puts a message in a bottle and floats it away in the sea--but the friend who finds it is someone completely unexpected.

Written when the author was ten years old, tells of a dog and a boy who are both lonely until they are included by others.