Avery Special is the world's only living necromancer, and she's pretty bad at it. She also just moved to L.A., where trouble has been waiting for a necromancer. Trouble that doesn't care how strong she is, or that she's only fifteen. Monsters, magical artifacts, occultists and television producers only care that a real necromancer is back. There are definitely upsides. Chris, Annie, Sue, and Peggy have their own creepy super powers and are the best friends a girl could hope to make on her first day in a new city. Her Pudgy Bunny coloring book can teach her more than a stack of grimoires. Her ghostly ancestors are so eager to help it's annoying. Not that she has time for any of that, because Chris and Sue are both in love with her.

When an evil artifact offers you the power to turn into a monster, agreeing would be stupid. Mirabelle isn't stupid. She also doesn't have much choice. Her friends all have super powers that let them go on exciting adventures. Mirabelle's super power is to be made of glass, and walking across a room is dangerous enough. But the shiny rock won't shut up, and to get rid of it, she has to use its powers against it. She does that carefully, because Mirabelle isn't stupid. Until Mirabelle falls in love, and love makes everyone stupid. Now supervillains and superheroes are fighting over four pieces of the Heart of Vermiel, and a girl who breaks if she runs has to collect them all, or be broken. She has to turn into a monster on the outside without turning into a monster on the inside. Somewhere in this mess there has to be an ending that lets her stay alive, stay a good person, and maybe get a chance to run, and be angry, and break things just once. Besides, how many girls can say their boyfriend is a dragon?

Magic, mad science, and teenagers are a recipe for trouble. As the only living necromancer, fifteen-year-old Avery Special has too much trouble as it is. Trying to use her dark powers for good, she awakens a cyborg from a coma. The superintelligent Tonika is grateful and full of plans to help Avery help others, but the more Avery helps, the more trouble she gets in. Her parents are worried. Her boyfriend and girlfriend are lonely. A robot-possessing ghost is on the loose. Oh, and she stole a crystal ball from a museum. How much helping is too much? Can she afford to not help when the ultimate evil mad scientist tries to destroy the world?

Artifact Forge doesn't make monsters. She's a bioengineer. She creates exotic magical livestock, upgrades cats into witches' familiars, and can turn you into a goblin if you accept the risks. She's also thirteen, and has arrived in Goblita to learn her uncle is dead, she's inherited his business, and has a demonic cousin her age. Don't worry, Artifact can handle it. She's a prodigy! Give her a bioengineering challenge and she'll make you something better than you wanted. …which is the problem as her messenger dragon turns into a ravening chimera, her new cousin gets her involved in a burglary, and the kids at school drag her into their dungeon crawling hobby. With all that plus running a business and household like an adult, will Artifact have time to actually attend classes? Ask her again after she saves the city from the disasters she caused.

One minute, Rachel is taking a break from babysitting. The next, she's escaping the Earth on a pedal-powered interplanetary bus. It could happen to anybody. It could. Generally it doesn't, but it could. Because what Rachel soon learns is that Earth is infected with Math, which is why we look at our solar system and see freezing balls of ice, gas, and rock whirling lifelessly through a hostile void. Everyone else sees air pirates sailing the Seven Skies of Saturn, the endless exciting fight scenes of Mars, the sullen ghosts of Pluto, and much more. "More" including the Lighthouse of Ceres, the waypoint for all travelers of the solar system. That's where Rachel ends up, and where she finds out her hobbies of sketching and storytelling make her a genius at repairing Math-free spaceships. She loves it, and no one makes her reveal she's from the quarantined, much-feared planet Earth. Instead they make up their own ideas of who she is and where she's from. Very dangerous ideas...

Penelope Akk wants to be a superhero. She's got superhero parents. She's got the ultimate mad science power, filling her life with crazy gadgets even she doesn't understand. She has two super powered best friends. In middle school, the line between good and evil looks clear. In real life, nothing is that clear. All it takes is one hero's sidekick picking a fight, and Penny and her friends are labeled supervillains. In the process, Penny learns a hard lesson about villainy: She's good at it. Criminal masterminds, heroes in power armor, bottles of dragon blood, alien war drones, shape shifters and ghosts, no matter what the super powered world throws at her, Penny and her friends come out on top. They have to. If she can keep winning, maybe she can clear her name before her mom and dad find out.

Bad children are punished. Be bad, a child is told, and you’ll be turned into an animal, marked with your crime. The Wild Children are forever young, but that, too, can be a curse. Five children each tell a different story of what they became: One learns that wrong can be right, and her curse may be a blessing. Another is so Wild he must learn the simplest lesson, to love someone else. An eight-year-old girl must face fear and doubt as she dies of old age. Love and strangeness hit the lives of two brothers in the form of a beautiful flaming bird. Finally, the oldest child learns that what is right can be horribly wrong. Together they tell a sixth story, of a Wild Girl who can’t speak for herself, and doesn’t seem Wild at all.