US Common Core ELA
— A girl dreams she's flying as a butterfly on Halloween night, then wakes to find she's wearing the same costume in real life.
— After her parents die, Clara lives with her strict Aunt Helga until the arrival of the Hayward siblings brings friendship and the possibility of romance.
— Thirteen sensory vignettes capture autumn through taste, sound, sight, and feeling, from gingersnaps to geese flying south to the mountain's sigh.
— A Chinese-American girl struggles with her identity after moving from San Francisco to Boston, finding strength in her grandfather's wisdom about heritage and belonging.
— A five-year-old's fragmented memories of September 11th capture confusion through misheard words and the sudden absence of the towers.
— A girl runs thirteen miles home from the hospital where her mother is dying, haunted by the unspoken response to her mother's final 'I love you.'
— Two sisters visiting India reluctantly ride a rickety Ferris wheel at a deserted amusement park, transforming boredom into terror then exhilaration as they rock the unsafe cart.
— A skateboarder captures the split-second of flight when jumping a curb, where worldly problems disappear before the wheels touch down again.
— In drought-stricken Africa, a girl's beloved zebra friend is sacrificed to save her dying mother, then the rains finally come.
— During WWI's Christmas truce of 1914, a young soldier gives his aunt's ugly sweater to a sick German soldier who returns it decades later on a lonely Christmas Eve.