No stranger to the injustice of racial hatred, five-year-old Peekay learns the hard way the first secret of survival and self-preservation - the power of one. An encounter with amateur boxer Hoppie Groenewald inspires in Peekay a fiery ambition - to be welterweight champion of the world.

Lost to history by the chronicles of men, this is the story of Dinah, Jacob's only daughter in the Book of Genesis. Moving from Mesopotamia to Canaan to Egypt, Dinah narrates her tale, from her upbringing by the four wives of Jacob to her growth into one of the most influential women of her time. In the Bible, Dinah's life is only hinted at in a brief and violent detour within the chapters of the Book of Genesis that are about her father, Jacob and his sons. The tale combines story-telling with a different way of looking at the place occupied by women in ancient Jewish society.

In Kabul, Afghanistan, Parvana's father is arrested and removed by Taliban solders. Under Taliban law, women and girls are not allowed to leave home without a man, so Parvana, her mother and sisters must stay inside. When their food runs out, they face starvation, so Parvana must pretend to be a boy.

Marvinder and her young brother are separated from their mother as war breaks out in India in 1947. Together they must make their way to England and a new life.

During the Japanese occupation of parts of China, twelve-year-old Ye Xian is thrown out of her father's and stepmother's home, joins a martial arts group, and tries to help her aunt and the Americans in their struggle against the Japanese invaders. Includes historical notes.

Thirteen-year-old Lakshmi, though poor, enjoys her life until the Himalayan monsoons wash away her family's crops and she is sold to a brothel in India by her stepfather. She remembers her mother's wisdom, Simply to endure is to triumph, until the day comes that she can reclaim her life.

During the Chinese Cultural Revolution, two boys, both sons of doctors, are sent to the top of a mountain for re-education . An education that involves carting buckets of excrement up and down precipitous paths. But their lives take an unexpected turn when they meet the beautiful daughter of a local tailor and stumble upon a forbidden stash of Western literature.