US Common Core ELA
— A girl befriends her new neighbor Jessica, who gradually reveals manipulative behavior, steals a family heirloom, and drives a wedge between the narrator and her best friend.
— A boy returns to his late grandfather's wilderness farm for the first time since his death, finding solace when sunlight breaks through storm clouds onto a magnolia tree.
— A thirteen-year-old takes her first job picking strawberries, discovering the harsh realities of farm labor alongside workers from many cultures, especially the industrious Mennonites.
— A girl selling oranges at a Chinese market warns customers her fruit is sour, then runs after them to return their change, teaching a lesson about honesty.
— Rain transforms from mist to downpour, its gray fingers reaching through fog and pine trees, as the speaker celebrates the wet beauty of their Pacific Northwest home.
— A girl who was found on a beach as a baby discovers through a magical conch shell that she was rescued by whales after her parents' ship capsized.
— A bored city girl visiting suburban relatives discovers every house has a blonde girl shooting baskets, then becomes trapped in the conformist nightmare herself.
— A girl recalls summers at her family's Maine house, exploring tide pools and climbing Cannon Rock, where she collected sea glass and dreamed of becoming a marine biologist.
— A boy ignores earthquake warnings to go skateboarding with his friend, then gets trapped when a major quake hits the skate park and the building collapses.
— A girl falls from a tree house in 1949 and awakens from a seventeen-year coma to find her family aged, her best friend married to her brother, and the boy...