Cordelia Jensen

Seventh grader Lilac lives with her uncle and his wife after her mother's death and feels like an outsider, especially when twins are on the way. A letter from her estranged father pushes her to seek out where she truly belongs.

Two girls' lives intertwine: Lauren, grieving her autistic brother's placement in a therapeutic boarding school, hatches a scheme to raise money for underfunded autism services; Sierra, newly in foster care after years of looking after her mom, befriends Lauren but grows uneasy as the plan turns illegal.

Artistic Linc has never measured up in her high-achieving family next to her sister Holly, adopted from Ghana as a baby, so she pours herself into a photography project on Seneca Village, the lost community where Central Park now stands, until a long-buried family secret comes to light.

Mira discovers her father with his male lover at the start of senior year, and the secret upends everything she thought she knew about her family.