After spending her summer running the family farm and training the quarterback for her school's rival football team, sixteen-year-old D.J. decides to go out for the sport herself, not anticipating the reactions of those around her.
After leaving their rocky Connecticut farm to seek their fortunes in the West, Josh McBroom, his wife Melissa, and their eleven redheaded children stop in Iowa where they become owners of a small but very unusual piece of property.
In 1932, when her father's foot injury makes it impossible for him to do farm work for a while, thirteen-year-old Agnes steps in, proving herself and revealing her understanding of him.
Summary: Having ignored his mother's warnings about what will happen if he doesn't bathe after working on his family's New Mexican farm, Carlos awakens one morning to find squash growing out of his ears.
When thirteen-year-old Chrissa is sent to her paternal grandmother's farm, she learns more about her absent father and some of the reasons for her distant relationship with her mother.