After her beloved father's death in 1977, eleven-year-old tomboy Chip tries to fit with her family of beauty queens, making unlikely new friends at Miss Vernie's unusual charm school in Mt. Airy, North Carolina.

The unexpected appearance of a dolphin in her backyard creek helps a sixth-grader with cystic fibrosis learn to write her own story.

"Chestnut is a dog without a family. After being abandoned in the wild, Chestnut is wandering the North Carolina countryside trying to survive. When twelve-year-old Meg stumbles upon him on the outskirts of her family's Christmas tree farm, she just knows that they're meant to be together forever. The only problem? The farm is on the brink of closing down, and her family can't afford a pet. Meg knows she has what it takes to save the business and...