Stories
— A girl remembers her terror at starting preschool as she prepares to leave for college, finding her mother crying on her bed in a reversal of their old roles.
— A grieving teenager from New Jersey struggles to adjust to life with her aunt in Alabama until a chance encounter at a lighthouse during a storm offers unexpected comfort.
— A girl traces her understanding of the Iraq War through three encounters: her aunt's photos, a returned care package marked DECEASED, and her grandmother holding a soldier's boots.
— A boy visiting Nicaragua is confronted by child street vendors and gives his souvenir money to a five-year-old selling flowers outside a restaurant.
— A nine-year-old tennis player, forced to retire from a match due to knee injury, transforms despair into determination while watching rain turn to rainbow from her bedroom window.
— A German Shepherd named Jack leaves his Connecticut family to serve as a scout dog in WWII Morocco, saves soldiers' lives, and returns home changed but loved.
— Stranded on an island for five days after wrecking her yacht, Mae survives on crabs and snails while watching distant Fourth of July fireworks spark an unexpected epiphany about life's...
— A boy's Thursday prank of dumping mud on his parents backfires when they transform into pigs, leading to a frantic chase that ends with the revelation it was all a...
— A Jordanian girl who refuses to make friends at her new American school learns that preserving her identity doesn't require isolation when a classmate reaches out.
— A twelve-year-old girl, alone in an empty house after her father left, discovers that writing poetry can be its own form of comfort when traditional lullabies are gone.