[5] Isabel Campion, living in London, England in 1592, struggles with fitting her father's image of a "proper" girl, her adventurous and free-spirited ways often cause her problems in Tudor society.
After making friends with a servant and having the audacity to watch a play at the theater, her father sends Isabel away to stay with her aunt de Vere in an attempt to have her learned in proper etiquette.
Along the way she ends up in a situation with robbers, is rescued and then has to disguise herself as a boy to join a group of theatrical performers.
[6] In 1711 France, Cécile Revel is the daughter of a poor doctor, although she has learned to read, write and is an independent young lady.
After helping a woman who had fallen from a horse, she ends up serving in the Versailles court of King Louis XIV.
In the complicated world of court life, Cécile gradually discovers that her heart and spirit are more noble than she thinks.
When most of the royal family falls ill, Cécile cannot bear for them all to die in the hands of misguided court physicians, and locking herself and some maids in a room with the young Duke d'Anjou away from the doctors, saving his life.
[7] Called boyish by her new family for being able to read and write and work in a garden, twelve-year-old orphan Chou Spring Pearl (周 春珠) realizes that her "odd ways" just don't fit in the Sung home, the home she is taken to after her parents die in 1857 during the Second Opium War in Canton, China.
[8] Neela Sen is an independent-minded and freedom-loving Indian girl who is hoping for peace when preparing for her sister's wedding, dealing with her mother wanting her to marry.
While in the city, which is controlled by Great Britain, Neela learns the importance of India's independence, and sees a world beyond her small rural life.
[9] Minuk a young, curious, and mischievous Yup'ik girl in the banks of Alaska must endure the realization that her traditional way of life is changed forever with the arrival of Christian missionaries.
[11] While trying to help her financially destitute family, twelve-year-old Leyla ends up on a slave ship bound for Istanbul.