US Common Core ELA
— A twelve-year-old discovers seventy-five letters from 1919-1923 between her great-grandmother and a French pen pal, Cécile, who died at age twenty.
— A granddaughter observes her grandfather's dementia, as Holocaust memories resurface while present moments fade, yet his gentle spirit and their bond remain intact.
— A girl's special day with her father is interrupted when he brings home an abused horse, and she discovers her calling in helping the animal heal.
— In 1665 Madrid, thirteen-year-old Maria defies her father's arranged marriage plans and elopes with Edward, an English ambassador's son, to pursue her dream of writing novels.
— A girl swimmer fights back when a new coach declares girls aren't good enough for competitive swimming, leading her teammates to crash the boys' tryouts and prove him wrong.
— An 11-year-old holds his baby brother for the first time, contemplating the transfer of childhood wonder from one generation to the next.
— A child watches sunset from the beach, sees dolphins, rides waves on a boogie board, and promises to return tomorrow to the ocean shore.
— A girl raised by lions in Africa encounters humans who might be her birth parents and must choose between two families.
— A Thai girl defies her overprotective mother to save their home by selling the family's beloved mango tree to pay off the mortgage.
— After her mother's death, a girl obsessively fills her life with activities until a poetry assignment about sadness breaks through her denial.