This book includes in-depth descriptions of young adolescent novels organized by theme and useful teaching ideas. The themes are clustered in the following categories:
- Against the Tide - novels about standing up and speaking out
- A Tangle of Emotions - novels about family relations
- When Danger Threatens - novels about survival
- Beyond Stereotypes - novels about growing up in other cultures
- No Longer Strangers - novels about strangers
- Bruised and Outside - novels about the homeless
- from the foreword.