Reminiscent of the loud, loving, eccentric family in Kaufman and Hart's You Can't Take It with You, the Applewhites are brilliantly talented and wildly adverse to mainstream mentality. As successful writers, directors, and artists, they are sure that their creative ideas will help a delinquent teen, Jake, turn away from destructive thinking and behavior and turn toward educational and personal interests that will teach him how to be happy. Even though...

During her solitary convalescence from a crippling accident, twelve-year-old Charley finds a wild dog, and the arduous process of training him leads her to explore her feelings about her mother's death two years earlier.

Thirteen-year-old E.D. Applewhite, still reeling from her bewildering kiss with former bad boy Jake, embarks on a cross-country road trip in a wildly painted school bus with her eccentric, highly creative family, as they compete in an art educational quest for a big cash prize.

Sophie is torn between her desire to buy a beautiful toy hedgehog and her compassion for a hungry street person.

When fourteen-year-old Drew and her mute younger brother come to live with their father's estranged relatives after their parents' sudden death, they discover that the house is haunted by ghosts and a deadly family secret.