Stories
— A Thai girl defies her overprotective mother to save their home by selling the family's beloved mango tree to pay off the mortgage.
— After her mother's death, a girl obsessively fills her life with activities until a poetry assignment about sadness breaks through her denial.
— A second-grader leaves school early for a phone call from her father's childhood nurse in Greece, navigating language barriers and discovering her connection to a namesake grandmother.
— Two seventh-graders investigate dead fish at a marsh, uncovering a plot to destroy the wetland for a mall, and catch the criminals in a nighttime stakeout.
— Leaving her family's beach house for the last time this summer, a girl recalls memories of swimming, sailing, and sea turtles while dreading the return to school schedules.
— In 3014, thirteen-year-old Cassie's birthday is forgotten when her busy parents leave for work trips, but she finds strength in a message from her great-grandmother.
— A girl in princess clothes and sandals joins an all-boys basketball team, endures weeks of mockery, then makes the game-winning shot when it matters most.
— A Chinese mother faces an impossible choice when officials demand she give up one of her two children under the one-child law, ultimately deciding to leave China.
— A Manhattan girl spends a reluctant summer on a Kentucky farm, where a barefoot country girl teaches her to climb trees, ride horses, and watch sunrises.
— A girl goes cross-country skiing with her grandfather in winter woods, gets separated from him, hears a pack of coyotes, and feels a deep connection to the forest.