Stories
— Eight-year-old Yuki experiences the upheaval of Japanese-American internment, losing herself in despair until a letter from her librarian and an unexpected kindness help her find hope again.
— After her grandfather shares memories of her late grandmother during a rainstorm, a girl discovers the meaning of finding sunshine even on cloudy days when he passes away two days...
— A star running back plays through concussion symptoms with a cracked helmet in the championship game, scores the winning touchdown, but may never play football again.
— At summer camp, a girl lies about her grandmother's earrings to avoid teasing, loses them, and discovers her new friend stole them out of misguided kindness.
— An adopted Korean girl visits her birth village on Easter, confronting the life she might have lived before choosing the family who raised her.
— Two girls repeatedly almost meet through various near-misses, until the narrator reveals their friendship would have diminished them both, making timing's failures a blessing.
— A teenage graffiti artist creates stunning murals on abandoned buildings while evading police, forming an unlikely friendship with a politician's daughter who discovers his work.
— A basketball-obsessed eighth grader befriends Arthur, a boy with a disability who's never played basketball, teaching him the game and advocating for him to join the team.
— A family's ritual of baking chocolate-chip cookies becomes a meditation on memory, tradition, and the passage from childhood tea parties to present-day conversations.
— A girl finally gets her turn to be Lucia in her Swedish family's St. Lucia Day celebration, but forgets the words to the traditional song at the crucial moment.