Willa has never known her father. In fact, her mother has refused to tell the eight-year-old anything at all about him. Willa dreams about what he might look like and who he might be. She often asks herself why her hair, which is "afro-crinkly," and her skin, which is dark, are so different from her mother s brown hair and pale skin. A substitute teacher s request that the class draw pictures of their dads for a Father s Day card launches Willa on an odyssey to discover the truth. Her head filled with fantasies of kings and princesses, Willa gathers the clues and, with the help of her good...

Ten-year-old Elizabeth is spending the summer at her Great-Aunt Germaines, in rural Caradoc County. Also along for the visit is her brother, Eddie, and her mother. Great-Aunt Germaine seems to be a forbidding character, and Beth does not warm up to her. Between her relationship with Aunt Germaine and Eddies antics, Elizabeth feels overwhelmed. She discovers her aunts emporium, a former tourist attraction. It is a fascinating place, filled with memorabilia, including old newspaper reports of a mysterious swamp monster. Elizabeths own adventure begins when she finds a perfectly egg-shaped...