Mia Tang thinks she's going to have the best year ever. She and her parents are the proud owners of the Calivista Motel, Mia gets to run the front desk with her best friend, Lupe, and she's finally getting somewhere with her writing! But as it turns out, sixth grade is no picnic.

"After years of hard work, Mia Tang finally gets to go on vacation with her family--to China! A total dream come true. Mia can't wait to see all her cousins and grandparents again, especially her cousin Shen. As she roams around Beijing, witnessing some of the big changes China's going through, Mia thinks about the changes in her own life, like . . . 1. Lupe's taking classes at the high school! And Mia's own plans to be a big writer are . . . stuck....

As often as possible high school senior Reiko Smith-Mori drives to the nearby California desert to escape from the increasingly claustrophobic life at home and her parents' expectations. There she meets Seth Rogers, a boy from school who shares her love of the desert but also wants a closer relationship with Reiko, which is just adding to her problems. Because Reiko has a secret: in her mind her older sister, Mika, who died years ago, is always with...

"Alder has always lived in his cozy little house in Southern California. And for as long as he can remember, the old, reliable, comforting walnut tree has stood between his house and the one next door. That is, until a new family—with a particularly annoying girl his age—moves into the neighboring house and, without warning, cuts it down. Oak doesn’t understand why her family had to move to Southern California. She has to attend a new school,...

When Fancy Pink is offered a record deal their parents say no, so they decide to make an album on their own, if they can raise enough money without raising their parents' suspicions.

Accompanied by her brother's friend, Tyler, sixteen-year-old Rachel ventures through San Diego and nearby areas seeking her brother, eighteen-year-old Micah, a methamphetamine addict who ran away from home.

"It's opening day at Xus National Park in Southern California, and Kodi, Summer, and Eddy Skycedar's first day as Junior Park Rangers! But when a mysterious storm threatens to close the park, the siblings must put their heads together to save the day!"--

"When the surf's up, she pops out her hearing aid, hops on her board and paddles out to the lineup. Joss is stoked to enter a surfing video contest with her friend Sofia and Murph, the surfing bulldog. If she can master a killer aerial like the frontside air and get her brother Dylan to catch it on video, maybe she'd even have a shot at winning. But Dylan throws her a curve: he dares her to try out for the cheer team. No way--Joss can't see herself...

Thirteen-year-old, clarinet-playing, Southern California surfer, Yumi Ruiz-Hirsch, comes from a complex family--her father is Jewish-Japanese, her mother is Cuban, and her parents are divorced--and when her grandfather Saul is diagnosed with terminal cancer, Yumi asks him to tell her his life story, which helps her to understand her own history and identity.