US Common Core ELA
— In Tehran, a teenage girl joins her mother's secret political group that meets under the guise of Friday tea gatherings while the men are at prayer.
— An Egyptian servant girl who is secretly the goddess Isis helps a hippo mother killed by hunters become the goddess Tawret, reuniting her with her family in the afterlife.
— A landlord tends his garden at dawn, moving through dewy grass to pull weeds and care for lettuce and strawberries in the quiet morning.
— Three friends meet to swim at night but Martin has a premonition dream where a sea creature attacks his friends, waking just as they arrive for real.
— A twelve-year-old girl resents her parents' decision to adopt a Romanian orphan until the younger girl offers her dead sister's ring, asking if Kate can take her place.
— An orphaned girl joins her estranged sea captain father's ship, where she exposes the first mate's theft and helps navigate through a storm to earn her place.
— A young diver conquers her fear of the 10-meter platform, discovering the exhilaration of flight in the moment she lets herself fall.
— While learning to peel apples with her mother, a girl's mind drifts through memories of other first times, barely noticing when she achieves the perfect peel.
— Rabbit soldier Brumm rises through ranks to defend Fort Cuniculus against fox invaders, forging alliances with dingoes and kangaroos in an Australian bush war.
— A girl treasures a robin's feather and its song, loses the feather to her sister's art project, then rediscovers music's magic through her sister's violin playing.