US Common Core ELA
— A girl struggles for three years to answer her teacher's question about her future dreams, only finding an answer after the teacher's death.
— A seventh-grader chronicles her weekly emotional cycle through structured verse, from Sunday's YouTube freedom to Thursday's tennis exhaustion.
— A physically timid girl who has failed at every sport finally learns to ride a bike, discovering freedom and confidence in the process.
— A small boat drifts on crystal waters under a rainbow sky, its peaceful rocking motion mesmerizing the observer in this watercolor-inspired meditation.
— A girl's excitement about becoming a big sister turns to grief when her mother miscarries, teaching her about loss and the fragility of hope.
— A young writer confronts human hypocrisy and self-righteousness, building to the admission that we're all guilty of the stupidity we see in others.
— A girl waits in a sweltering car while her mother fights with broken gas pumps, her stream-of-consciousness revealing the death of her brother Joel and her parents' bitter divorce.
— When Mike disappears from school, detectives follow clues through a haunted palace and time machine to rescue him from the Stone Age.
— A boy gets a dog his mother hates. After the mother repeatedly tries to abandon the dog, it saves her from a mugger, changing her heart.
— A 12-year-old defends her two-dad family through memories of ballet recitals, newspaper rituals, and playground confrontations, asserting that both men are her 'actual dads.'