Stories
— A thirteen-year-old bassoonist battles nerves and nausea before performing at Carnegie Hall, then discovers transcendence when she forgets her music and must play from memory.
— A poet escapes his chaotic household at night to write in the barn, where the sounds of sleeping animals inspire verses that flow from his heart.
— At art camp, a girl joins a secret nickname club where everyone has a summer identity, until the club's leader reveals her own name was never a nickname at all.
— A girl runs eleven miles to the beach without planning, where observing oysters making pearls from irritating sand grains helps her reframe her frustrations with home life.
— A stray cat with a bell that prevents her from hunting gradually learns to trust a grieving woman who feeds her, eventually becoming a beloved family pet.
— A star basketball player tears her knee in the championship game, faces losing her scholarship dreams, then finds purpose coaching young players while beginning her recovery.
— An elf boy searches for rare ashberries to save a dragonfire victim, remembering how the same berries failed to save his father years before.
— A girl struggles with her rebellious golden retriever until he falls through ice into a river, and she jumps in to save him, realizing she loves him as he is.
— A young man becomes a rodeo bullfighter on the anniversary of his best friend's death, facing the same bull that killed him a year earlier.
— Two childhood friends are separated when their families move to different states, then reunite by chance years later at college in Chicago.