Carlota does not talk because she does not need to. With her gestures and expressions, everyone understands what she needs to say. But one day, while chasing her friend Tom the mouse, Carlota runs into the pantry and the door slams shut! The little girl is locked inside. What will Carlota do?

After their mother falls mysteriously ill, eleven-year-old twins Gus and Leo and their mute younger sister, Ila, learn that they share their mother's ability to transform into animals, and to defeat the evil King of the Black Lakes, they must harness this newfound power.

Feeling barely alive in a world where all animals are endangered, Kester Jaynes, a voiceless inmate in a home for troubled children, discovers that he can communicate with bird and cockroach rescuers that he endeavors to save from extinction.

Twelve-year-old Jewel was born on the day her brother Bird died and lives in a house of silence and secrets, but a new boy in her Iowa town may help find the answers Jewel wants despite her Jamaican grandfather's warning that he is a "duppy," a malevolent spirit.

Fifth-grader Cally Louise Fisher stops talking, partly because her father and brother never speak of her mother who died a year earlier, but visions of her mother, friendships with a homeless man and a disabled boy, and a huge dog ensure that she still communicates.

Near the start of World War II, ten-year-old Manami, her parents, and her grandfather are evacuated from their home and sent to Manzanar, an internment camp in the desert for Japanese-American citizens, where Manami grieves the home and dog she was forced to leave behind.

"Carlota no habla porque no le hace falta. Todo el mundo la entiende tan solo con sus gestos y miradas. Hasta que un día, persiguiendo a su amigo Tom el ratón, entroó en la despensa y la puerta se cerró de golpe. La niña se quedó encerrada. ¿Qué hará Carlota? Parece que la forma de salir de allí tiene que ver simplemente con el uso de su voz."--Nubeocho.com. Carlota never needs to say a word--even in class she can make herself...

"A young boy loses both parents as they attempt to flee Haiti for a better life, and afterward is only able to process his grief and communicate with the outside world through playing the drums. Includes author's note"-- Provided by publisher.

"Twelve-year-old Thea, devastated after seeing her best friend die, begins to open to the possibility of new friendships and forgiveness, and comes to believe in what cannot be fully explained"--OCLC.