Allan Stratton

"Leslie's journal records her troubles at school, at home, and with her best friend, not to mention the problems that come with a new relationship." --

"Cameron is used to moving at a moment's notice because he and his mother are always running away from his supposedly violent father, but he is disturbed by their latest refuge, a creepy, deserted farmhouse, haunted by bloodthirsty dogs--and when he sees a boy hiding in the barn, and finds an old picture of the same boy, he starts wondering about the possibility of human ghosts." --

A girl's struggle amid the African AIDS pandemic, Chanda, is an astonishingly perceptive girl living in the small city of Bonang, a fictional city in Southern Africa.

Twelve-year-old Chanda learns of a rumor that has spread through her village near Johannesburg and forced her mother to flee. Sensing that the gossip stems from prejudice and superstition, Chanda leaves home and school to find her mother and discover the truth.