US Common Core ELA
— A girl walks through her empty childhood home one last time before moving, finding comfort in her old cat who shares her reluctance to leave.
— A seventh-grader with a lifelong crush on her neighbor plans to reveal her feelings at the Valentine's dance, but gets the flu and misses it—until a midnight mailbox exchange changes...
— A girl in California gazes into a snow globe's winter scene, imagining the Christmas town inside before returning to the blazing heat outside.
— A boy hiding in an abandoned Paris theatre discovers ghostly musicians are his mother's orchestra, leading him to his grandfather, the famous conductor Alexandre Mierceles.
— A young girl walking to school becomes enchanted by a brown-and-white tabby cat following her, despite her mother's urgings to hurry along.
— Gulls fly between mountain peaks while the immobile rocks' shadows dance below, exploring the contrast between movement and stillness in a landscape.
— A boy learns his father must move to California for work, runs away in anger and confusion, then returns home ready to face the separation.
— A girl hides in her favorite tree before a dreaded doctor's visit, finding solace in the branches and sharing a poem that no one else appreciated.
— Two competitive students challenge each other at chin-ups in a rain-soaked park, pushing past their limits to discover something beyond winning.
— After his grandfather's death, a boy inherits a lucky penny passed down through generations, only to have bullies steal and throw it in a lake.