Middle-schooler Nate Wright vies against his rival, the "perfect" Artur, to win the grand prize of a customized skateboard in their scout troop contest.

When thirteen-year-old Joan moves to California in 1972, she becomes friends with Sarah, who is timid at school but an imaginative leader when they play in the woods, and after winning a writing contest together they are recruited for an exclusive summer writing class that gives them new insights into themselves and others.

It is 1983 and Vanessa Martin, a thirteen-year-old African American girl in Newark's public housing, dreams of following in the footsteps of the first black Miss America, Vanessa Williams; but with a dysfunctional family (mother in jail, father withdrawn, drunken grandfather, gay cousin) the odds are against her--until a new teacher at school organizes a beauty pageant and encourages Vanessa to enter.

The diabolical Player Killer, a collectible-card gaming assassin, challenges Yugi to a duel. In the shadow of the Castle of Dark Illusions card, an army of lurking monsters hungers to steal Yugi's life points--and, if he loses, his actual life. But across the ocean in Japan, an even greater gaming force has been awakened. Kaiba, Yugi's number one rival, is back. Back to reclaim his fortune--back to get revenge on Pegasus--and back to make sure that...