It hasn't snowed on Christmas in Virginia in more than a hundred years, so what are the chances that that will change? Enter the new mailman, Mr. Jack Frost, who not only looks like a jolly old elf but also seems to know a lot about weather patterns, has a fondness for the cold, and works looooooong hours during the holiday season. Plus it's the best time of the year, when strange packages and lots of surprises are swirling around, so isn't it possible...

Twelve-year-old Fern feels invisible in her family, where grumpy eighteen-year-old Sarah is working at the family restaurant, fourteen-year-old Holden is struggling with school bullies and his emerging homosexuality, and adorable, three-year-old Charlie is always the center of attention, and when tragedy strikes, the fragile bond holding the family together is stretched almost to the breaking point.

A spunky young girl from Colombia loves playing with her canine best friend and resists boring school activities, especially learning English, until her family tells her that a special trip is planned to an English-speaking place.

"Speed and self-confidence, that's Astrid's motto. Nicknamed "the little thunderbolt, " she loves to spend her days racing down the hillside on her skis or sled, singing merrily as she goes, and drinking hot chocolate made from real chocolate bars with her grumpy best friend and godfather, Gunnvald. She just wishes there were other children to share in her hair-raising adventures. But her world is about to be turned upside down, first by the arrival...

"Sixth-grader Merci Suarez doesn't have a big house or take fancy vacations like the other kids at Seaward Pines Academy. She's a scholarship student who lives with her extended family in three little houses they call Las Casitas. But everything feels different this year -- and not just at school, where queen bee Edna Santos has set her sights on Merci's school-assigned Sunshine Buddy, Michael Clark. At home, Merci's beloved grandfather, Lolo, has...

The story is told from the perspective of Herbert Lemon, the Lost-and-Founder of the Grand Nautilus Hotel, who tries to unite objects that have been left at the hotel with their owners.