While working as a door-to-door encyclopedia salesman as a means of paying for his college tuition, seventeen-year-old Lemuel Altick witnesses the double assassination of two clients to whom he's about to close a sale. Surprised by Lemuel's presence, the assassin forces Lemuel to become complicit in the murder an event that instigates Lemuel's exposure to the previously hidden underworld surrounding him. Soon, Lemuel must contend with a boss involved...

Lenny Spink is the sister of a giant. Her little brother, Davey, suffers from a rare form of gigantism and is taunted by other kids and turned away from school because of his size. To escape their cruel reality, Lenny and Davey obsess over the entries in their monthly installment of Burrell's Build-It-at-Home Encyclopedia set. Lenny vows to become a beetle expert, while Davey decides he will run away to Canada and build a log cabin. But as Davey's...