July/August 2015
— A seven-year-old Taiwanese immigrant girl chases a boy who steals her five-dollar bill at the market, learning hard lessons about trust and resilience in her new country.
— Half a World Away, by Cynthia Kadohata; Atheneum Books for Young Readers: New York, 2014; $16.99 Electricity: It creates lightning, turns on the TV, generates power. A microscopic current. Something...
— After her dog is killed in a storm, a girl runs to their secret creek hideout to grieve, where her mother finds and comforts her.
— Two friends race coconuts down a sandy hill during a beach campfire, forgetting to mark which coconut belongs to whom, leading to a playful argument.
— A canoe journey down a river becomes a catalog of sensory impressions — from burbling water to wild mint to watchful eagles — preserved as memory.
— After her mother's death, a girl moves to a farm with her father and encounters an old woman who tends a single bean plant, her only inheritance from her late...
— A granddaughter listens intently as her grandfather talks about construction and business, finding beauty and hidden lessons in his philosophical approach to work.
— A girl moves from Colorado to New York after her mother's death, resisting the change until an elderly landlady helps her see that pain makes love meaningful.
— A girl chases chickens away from an outdoor dinner, then later visits them in their coop, stroking them as they settle for sleep.
— A boy jealous of his cousin's building projects with their grandfather finally gets his chance when they build a chicken coop together during a summer visit.