At the Hotel Balzaar, Marta's mother rises before the sun, puts on her uniform, and instructs Marta to roam as she will but quietly, invisibly like a little mouse. While her mother cleans rooms, Marta slips down the back staircase to the grand lobby to chat with the bellman, study the painting of an angel's wing over the fireplace, and watch a cat chase a mouse around the face of the grandfather clock, all the while dreaming of the return of her soldier...

Mia loves all her friends in the Cupcake Club, and things are good at home with her new stepdad and stepbrother and going to her dad's house on the weekends. School is okay too with one exception: Mia is failing Spanish! She can speak it at home with her family, but writing is a different story. And when it's parent-teacher night, Mia has a new dilemma: Who goes to that? Mom and Eddie? Mom and Dad? All of them? Mia soon realizes that sometimes having...