In small-town Australia, teens Jasper and Charlie form an unlikely friendship when one asks the other to help him cover up a murder until they can prove who is responsible.

A recluse, having written stories peopled with beloved characters, releases them into the world on hot-air balloons, hoping they will find life and return to him.

"Mystery-book aficionado Birdie Lindberg has an overactive imagination. Homeschooled by strict grandparents, she's cultivated a fantasy life in which she plays the heroic detective and every stranger is a suspect. She works the graveyard shift at a historic Seattle hotel, where Daniel Aoki is the van driver. He also patronizes the waterfront Moonlight Diner where she waits for the early morning ferry after work. They stumble upon a real-life mystery:...

When August DuPont, eleven, leaves his eccentric Aunt Hydrangea's crumbling mansion for the first time ever, he meets family, makes a friend, and attracts a zombie.