An Italian boy loses his family after arriving at Ellis Island in the early 20th century. While searching for a clue as to where his family has gone, he gets caught up with a gang of boys who steal to stay alive. When unexpected betrayal leaves him scrambling, it will take all the street smarts he's gained to find a way back to his family.

"Share a time you left your comfort zone." That's the Stanford University essay prompt keeping senior Aisha Agarwal up at night. As a daughter of immigrant parents, a scholarship student at a competitive private school, and a shoo-in for valedictorian, Aisha's straight-and-narrow path has always guaranteed safety and success. But after her longtime crush, fellow brain Brian, stands her up at winter formal, Aisha decides that playing it safe just isn't...

"Keru and Nate first meet in college, brought together by a joke at a Halloween party (would a "great white" costume mean dressing like a shark or a privileged Ivy League student?) and marrying a few years later. Misfits in their own families, they find in each other a feeling of home. Keru is the only child of strict, well-educated Chinese immigrant parents who hold her to impossible standards even as an adult ("To use a dishwasher is to admit defeat,"...