Stories
— A girl befriends her new neighbor Jessica, who gradually reveals manipulative behavior, steals a family heirloom, and drives a wedge between the narrator and her best friend.
— A girl who was found on a beach as a baby discovers through a magical conch shell that she was rescued by whales after her parents' ship capsized.
— A bored city girl visiting suburban relatives discovers every house has a blonde girl shooting baskets, then becomes trapped in the conformist nightmare herself.
— A girl recalls summers at her family's Maine house, exploring tide pools and climbing Cannon Rock, where she collected sea glass and dreamed of becoming a marine biologist.
— A boy ignores earthquake warnings to go skateboarding with his friend, then gets trapped when a major quake hits the skate park and the building collapses.
— A girl falls from a tree house in 1949 and awakens from a seventeen-year coma to find her family aged, her best friend married to her brother, and the boy...
— Three cousins rowing to a Maine lighthouse are caught in a sudden storm, their boat capsizes, and they barely make it to shore alive.
— A sixth-grade violinist, the youngest finalist in a school competition, plays brilliantly but doesn't place, learning to transform disappointment into determination for next year.
— Ed plays basketball with his friend Dave before a school bingo night where he comes within one number of winning an air-hockey table, losing to an elderly woman.
— A boy on his first duck hunt with his father struggles between wanting to please his dad and his inability to kill the mallard in his sights.