A baby offers comfort to a stuffed dog that might be afraid of shadows, swimming pools, strangers, and loud noises.

Mary Beth Latham is first and foremost a mother, whose three teenaged children come first, before her career as a landscape gardener, or even her life as the wife of a doctor. Caring for her family and preserving their everyday life is paramount. And so, when one of her sons, Max, becomes depressed, Mary Beth becomes focused on him, and is blindsided by a shocking act of violence.

"After a con goes wrong, nineteen-year-old Ness finds herself at the center of a criminal syndicate conspiracy, in a city where dreaming means waking up as your worst nightmare"--

"Eleven-year-old Fin has never felt safe until she and her mother move to the magic-infused town of Aldermere in the Pacific Northwest, but when the town is suddenly overrun with disturbances Fin is the only one who knows why--and she's the only one who can stop the havoc"--

"Each member of Erik Sheepflattener's modern-day Viking-heritage family has a motto to live by. Erik is developing a motto he can truly believe in : AVOID STUFF. But when he and his older sister Brunhilde spend the summer with their rough-and-tumble cousins in Minnesota, axe-wielding Bru gets the idea to name and conquer all of Erik's fears."

Something is wrong with twelve-year-old Zee, who has returned after a year's absence; nobody knows where he was or what happened to him, but now he is distracted and violent, freaking out when he sees his friends, Justin, Nia, and Lyric, playing an odd game of hide-and-seek, and talking wildly about some danger that is approaching--and soon his friends are pulled into a shadowy world ruled by a monstrous, shape-shifting Seeker, forced to play a terrifying...

"Creepy! Crawly! Criminy! Stink is bonkers about most scientific things. But dangle a spider in front of him and he goes berserk! Stink is so freaked out by spiders that he can't read about them. He can't look at them. He can't think about them. And he for sure can't touch them! Stink has arachnophobia (a fear of spiders), and he has it bad. But when a hairy backyard emergency arises, Stink is forced to face his fear--and eight beady eyes--head-on....

It's strange enough for Tamal to be the new kid in town. But it's even stranger to be living in the house that everyone wants to avoid, a house with a very deadly history. Nobody wants to talk about what happened ... nobody except the terrifying girl Tamal keeps encountering throughout the house. Tamal's parents can't see her, but he's sure she's there -- and wants something from him. Tamal's family thought this house would be a new start ... but...

As the summer solstice approaches, fifteen-year-old Reggie, horrified to learn that the Vours are still intent on harming her family and her best friend Aaron, finds help from an unlikely source.

Bear is so timid that he is even afraid of his own reflection, but he does not like to admit that he is scared to his friend, Rabbit, who is very daring--but when Rabbit is in danger Bear finds the courage to rescue his friend.